king with their clothes rent as a sign of grief at the words of the Assyrian, by which not only Hezekiah, but still more Jehovah, had been blasphemed, and reported what they had heard.
Chap. 19
Verses 1-2
When Hezekiah had heard from his counsellors the report of Rabshakeh’s words, he rent his clothes with horror at his daring mockery of the living God (2Ki 19:4), put on mourning clothes as a sign of the trouble of his soul and went into the temple, and at the same time sent Eliakim and Shebna with the oldest of the priests in mourning costume to the prophet Isaiah, to entreat him to intercede with the Lord in these desperate circumstances.[1]
The order of the words: Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, is unusual (cf. 2Ki 14:25; 2Ki 20:1; 1Ki 16:7, etc.), and is therefore altered in Isaiah into Isaiah the son of Amoz, the prophet.
Verse 3
2Ki 19:3 “A day of distress, and of chastisement, and of rejection is this day.” תּוכחה: the divine chastisement. נאצה: contemptuous treatment, or rejection of the people on the part of God (compare נאץ, Deu 32:19; Jer 14:21; Lam 2:6). “For children have come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.” A figure denoting extreme danger, the most desperate circumstances. If the woman in travail has not strength to bring forth the child which has come to the mouth of the womb, both the life of the child and that of the mother are exposed to the greatest danger; and this was the condition of the people here (see the similar figure in Hos 13:13). For לדה instead of לדת, see Ges. §69, 2 Anm.
Verse 4
Perhaps Jehovah thy God will hear the blasphemies of the living God on the part of Rabshakeh. ישׁמע: hear, equivalent to observes, take notice of, and in this case punish. חי אלהים: the living God, in contrast to the gods of the heathen, who are only lifeless idols (cf. 1Sa 17:26, 1Sa 17:36). והוכיח is not to be taken in connection with לחרף, as if it stood for להוכיח, “and to scold with words” (Luth., Ges.,
- ↑ “But the most wise king did not meet his blasphemies with weapons, but with prayer, and tears, and sackcloth, and entreated the prophet Isaiah to be his ambassador.” - Theodoret.
