I have digged, and drunk water; and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of the besieged places.
I have digged, and drunk water. In 2 Kings 19:24, it is "strange waters." I have marched into foreign lands, where I had to dig wells for the supply of my armies; even the natural destitution of water there did not impede my march.
With the sole of my feet ... rivers of the besieged places - or else, 'the streams (artificial canals from the Nile) of Egypt' ( yª'oreey (H2975) Maatsowr (H4693), another form of Mitsrayim (H4714)). Sennacherib thus alludes to his recent expedition against Egypt. But he suppresses his forced retreat from Pelusium. "With the sole of my foot" expresses that as soon as his vast armies marched into a region, the streams were drunk up by them; or rather, that the rivers proved no obstruction to the onward march of his armies. So Isaiah 19:5-6, referring to Egypt, "the river ... brooks of defense shall ... be dried up." Horsley translates the Hebrew for "besieged places," rocks. But the Septuagint, Vulgate, Chaldaic, Arabic, and Syriac, all support in the main the English version.