Isa 37:1
37:1 And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard [it], that he
     {a} tore his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth,
     and went into the house of the LORD.

     (a) In sign of grief and repentance.

Isa 37:2
37:2 And he sent Eliakim, who [was] over the household, and
     Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests covered
     with sackcloth, to {b} Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.

     (b) To have comfort from him by the word of God, that his
         faith might be confirmed and so his prayer be more
         earnest: teaching by it that in all dangers these two
         are the only remedies to seek to God and his ministers.

Isa 37:3
37:3 And they said to him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day [is] a
     day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the
     children are come to the {c} birth, and [there is] not
     strength to bring forth.

     (c) We are in as great sorrow as a woman in labour who
         cannot be delivered.

Isa 37:4
37:4 It may be the LORD thy God will {d} hear the words of
     Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to
     reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which
     the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore {e} lift up [thy]
     prayer for the remnant that is left.

     (d) That is, will declare by effect that he has heard it:
         for when God defers to punish, it seems to the flesh,
         that he knows not the sin, or hears not the cause.
     (e) Declaring that the ministers office stands not only in
         comforting by the word, but also in praying for the
         people.

Isa 37:7
37:7 Behold, I will send a wind upon him, and he shall hear a
     {f} rumour, and return to his own land; and I will cause
     him to fall by the sword in his own land.

     (f) Of the Egyptians and Ethiopians, who will come and
         fight against him.

Isa 37:8
37:8 So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria
     warring against {g} Libnah: for he had heard that he had
     departed from Lachish.

     (g) Which was a city toward Egypt, thinking by it to have
         stayed the force of his enemies.

Isa 37:10
37:10 Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let
      not thy God, in whom thou trustest, {h} deceive thee,
      saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the
      king of Assyria.

      (h) Thus God would have him utter a most horrible
          blasphemy before his destruction: as to call the
          author of all truth a deceiver: some gather by this
          that Shebna had disclosed to Sennacherib the answer
          that Isaiah sent to the king.

Isa 37:12
37:12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my
      fathers have destroyed, [as] {i} Gozan, and {k} Haran, and
      Rezeph, and the children of Eden who [were] in Telassar?

      (i) Which was a city of the Medes.
      (k) Called also Charre a city in Mesopotamia, from which
          Abraham came after his fathers death.

Isa 37:16
37:16 O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, that {l} dwellest
      [between] the cherubim, thou [art] the God, [even] thou
      alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made
      heaven and earth.

      (l) He grounds his prayer on God's promise, who promised
          to hear them from between the Cherubims.

Isa 37:18
37:18 Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all
      the nations, and {m} their countries,

      (m) Meaning, the ten tribes.

Isa 37:20
37:20 Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that
      {n} all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou [art]
      the LORD, [even] thou only.

      (n) He declares for what cause he prayed, that they might
          be glorified by it through all the world.

Isa 37:22
37:22 This [is] the word which the LORD hath spoken concerning
      him; The {o} virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised,
      [and] derided thee; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken
      her head at thee.

      (o) Whom God had chosen to himself as a chaste virgin, and
          over whom he had care to preserve her from the lusts
          of the tyrant, as a father would have over his
          daughter.

Isa 37:23
37:23 Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom
      hast thou exalted [thy] voice, and lifted thy eyes on
      high? [even] against the {p} Holy One of Israel.

      (p) Declaring by this that they who are enemies to God's
          Church fight against him whose quarrel his Church only
          maintains.

Isa 37:25
37:25 I have dug, {q} and drank water; and with the sole of my
      feet have I dried up all the rivers of the besieged
      places.

      (q) He boasts of his policy in that he can find means to
          nourish his army: and of his power in that his army is
          so great, that it is able to dry up whole rivers, and
          to destroy the waters which the Jews had closed in.

Isa 37:26
37:26 Hast thou not heard long ago, [how] I have done it; [and]
      of ancient times, {r} that I have formed it? now have I
      brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste
      fortified cities [into] ruinous heaps.

      (r) Signifying that God did not make his Church to destroy
          it, but to preserve it: and therefore he says that he
          formed it of old, even in his eternal counsel which
          cannot be changed.

Isa 37:27
37:27 Therefore their inhabitants [were] of small power, they
      were dismayed and confounded: they were [as] the grass of
      the field, and [as] the green herb, [as] the grass on the
      housetops, and [as grain] blighted {s} before it is grown
      up.

      (s) He shows that the state and power of most flourishing
          cities endures but a moment in respect to the Church,
          which will remain forever, because God is the
          maintainer of it.

Isa 37:28
37:28 But I know thy abode, and thy {t} going out, and thy
      coming in, and thy rage against me.

      (t) Meaning, his counsels and enterprises.

Isa 37:29
37:29 Because thy rage against me, and thy tumult, is come up
      into my ears, therefore I will put my {u} hook in thy
      nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back
      by the way by which thou {x} camest.

      (u) Because Sennacherib showed himself as a devouring fish
          and furious beast, he uses these similarities to teach
          how he will take him and guide him.
      (x) You will lose your labour.

Isa 37:30
37:30 And this [shall be] a {y} sign to thee, Ye shall eat
      [this] year such as groweth of itself; and the (z) second
      year that which springeth of the same: and in the third
      year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the
      fruit of them.

      (y) God gives signs after two sorts: some go before the
          thing as the signs that Moses worked in Egypt, which
          were for the confirmation of their faith, and some go
          after the thing, as the sacrifice, which they were
          commanded to make three days after their departure:
          and these latter are to keep the blessings of God in
          our remembrance, of which sort this here is.
      (z) He promises that for two years the ground would feed
          them of itself.

Isa 37:31
37:31 And {a} the remnant that hath escaped of the house of
      Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit
      upward:

      (a) They whom God has delivered out of the hands of the
          Assyrians will prosper: and this properly belongs to
          the Church.

Isa 37:35
37:35 For I will defend this city to save it for my own sake,
      and for my servant {b} David's sake.

      (b) For my promise sake made to David.

Isa 37:37
37:37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and
      returned, and dwelt at {c} Nineveh.

      (c) Which was the chiefest city of the Assyrians.

Isa 37:38
37:38 And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of
      Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons
      smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land
      of Armenia: and {d} Esarhaddon his son reigned in his
      stead.

      (d) Who was also called Sardanapalus, in whose days ten
          years after Sennacherib's death the Chaldeans overcame
          the Assyrians by Merodach their king.



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