Isaiah 37:15 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And Hezekiah prayed— The Pagans taught the knowledge of God, and the nature of their hero gods, only in their mysteries. The Hebrews were the only people whose object in their public and national worship, was the God of the universe. Josephus tells Apion, that the high and sublime knowledge which the Gentiles attained with difficulty in the rare and temporal celebration of their mysteries, was usually taught to the Jews at all times. "Can any government," says he, "be more holy than this, or any religion better adapted to the nature of the Deity? Where, in any place but this, are the whole people, by the special diligence of the priests, to whom the care of public instruction is committed, accurately taught the principles of true piety?—For those things which the Gentiles keep up for a few days only, that is, during those solemnities which they call mysteries and initiations, we, with vast delight, and a plenitude of knowledge which admits of no error, fully enjoy and perpetually contemplate through the whole course of our lives. If you ask the nature of those things which in our sacred rites are enjoined and forbidden, I answer, they are simple, and easily understood. The first instruction relates to the Deity; and teaches, that God contains all things, and is a being every way perfect, and the sole cause of all existence; the beginning, the middle, and the end of all things." This verse would be rather clearer, if we were to read, Thou, even thou alone, art the God of all the kingdoms, &c. Hezekiah here asserts the sole and universal dominion of the Lord God of Israel. See Isaiah 37:20. Psalms 96:5.Jeremiah 10:11. Divine Legation, book 2: and Vitringa.