There is [one] come out of thee, that imagineth evil against the LORD, a wicked counsellor.
Ver. 11. There is one come out of thee that imagineth evil against the Lord] Many there are, but one among and above the rest; sc. Sennacherib, that bold Briareus, that lifteth up his hundred hands at once against heaven, and threateneth to cut off at a blow God's people, as if they had all but one neck. See Nahum 1:9. "He is come up over all his channels, and gone over all his banks," Isaiah 8:7; but God shall soon put a stop to him, and with an "overrunning flood" (that he may be even with him) "make an utter end of his place," as it is here, Nahum 1:8 .
A wicked counsellor] Heb. a counsellor of Belial, or of the devil, who lendeth him his seven heads to plot, and his ten horns to push God's people. What pernicious counsel he gave them, see 2 Kings 18:19,35 2Ch 32:9-19 Isaiah 36:4,10; Isaiah 36:13,20; sc. to cast off God as not able to deliver them out of his hands; and to make an agreement with him by a present, &c. This pestilent counsel he gave them by Rabshakeh, who was, say the rabbins, a renegade Jew. Every vizier and bashaw of state among the Turks useth to keep still a Jew for his private counsel; whose malice, wit, and experience of Christendom, with their continual intelligence, is thought to advise most of that mischief which the Turk at this day puts in execution against us (saith mine author), the Jews being found the most nimble and mercurial wits in the world, but counsellors of Belial. In all the shop of hell there is no anvil so well set, whereon to forge, no engine so apt, whereby to execute any choice piece of mischief, as that man, who is ingenuose nequam et publico male faeundus (as it is said of Gaius Curio the Roman), wittily wicked and pestilently eloquent. Such were Cardinal Pole to England, Cardinal Sadoletus to Geneva, and the Jesuits generally, great politicians and factors for Rome. They say, Satan sent Luther, and God sent them to withstand him. They destroy many souls, as the dragon doth the elephant, by biting his ear and sucking his blood; because he knows that to be the only place which the elephant cannot reach with his trunk to defend. They take crafty counsel against the Church, Psalms 83:3 .