Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 37:10
Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
10 13. Sennacherib’s letter to Hezekiah. It is in substance a repetition of the chief argument of the Rabshakeh, with the unimportant modification that Hezekiah is here regarded as deceived by his God, while the Rabshakeh chose to represent him as a deceiver of his people.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Let not thy God deceive thee – The similar message which had been sent by Rabshakeh Isa 36:14-15 had been sent mainly to the people to induce them not to put confidence in Hezekiah, as if he would deceive them by leading them to rely on the aid of Yahweh. As that had failed, he, as a last resort, sent a similar message to Hezekiah himself, designed to alienate his mind from God, and assuring him that resistance would be vain. To convince him, he referred him Isa 37:11-13 to the conquests of the Assyrians, and assured him that it would be impossible to resist a nation that had subdued so many ethers. He had it not in his power to add Egypt to the list of subdued kingdoms, or it would have been done.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 37:10
Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee
A piece of satanic advice
I.
LET US WEIGH THIS PIECE OF SATANIC ADVICE. It is a very dangerous temptation for three reasons.
1. Because it appeals to the natural pride of the heart. There is a universal instinct which makes a man abhor the idea of being deceived. There is something in the very idea which rouses all the pride that lies latent in every heart.
2. There is no disguising the fact that if God did deceive us we are in a hopeless plight, and therefore there is force in the temptation.
3. The methods of Gods government being beyond our comprehension, sometimes appear to incline towards the tempters suggestion,–from appearances one might say, God is going to leave us in the lurch.
II. LET US TURN ROUND AND TEAR THE ADVICE UP.
1. We may tear it up because it comes too late. If God be a deceiver we are already so thoroughly deceived, and have been so for years, that it is rather late in the day to come and advise us not to be.
2. We may tear it up, because if God deceive us we may be quite certain that there is nobody else that would not. From all we know of our God, His holiness, His righteousness, and His faithfulness, if He can deceive us, then are we quite certain that there are none to be trusted
3. There is not one atom of evidence to support the libel. Search the world through, and see if you can find a man who will deliberately say, I have tried God, I have trusted Him, and He has deceived me.
4. There is overwhelming evidence to refute it. Never yet did man trust his God and be put to shame. Heaven and earth and hell declare that Jehovah never hath deceived and never can deceive. (A. G. Brown.)
Sennacherib versus Jehovah
Never before in his experience had Sennacherib heard of a God who could resist his progress; he believed in the almighty power of Asshur. (B. Blake, B. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
10. He tries to influenceHezekiah himself, as Rab-shakeh had addressed the people.
God . . . deceive(CompareNu 23:19).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying,…. This was the direction, and these the instructions he gave to his messengers, in which he gives Hezekiah the title of king, and owns him to be king of Judah; which was more than Rabshakeh his servant would do:
let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee; than which, nothing could be more devilish and satanical, to represent the God of truth, that cannot lie, as a liar and deceiver: in this the king of Assyria outdid Rabshakeh himself; he had represented Hezekiah as an impostor and a deceiver of the people, and warns them against him as such; and here Sennacherib represents God himself as a deceiver, and cautions Hezekiah against trusting in him: nothing is more opposite to Satan and his instruments, than faith in God, and therefore they labour with all their might and main to weaken it; however, this testimony Hezekiah had from his enemy, that he was one that trusted in the Lord; and a greater character a man cannot well have:
saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria; and so the Lord had said it; see Isa 38:6 and by some means or another Sennacherib had heard of it; and there was nothing he dreaded more than that Hezekiah should believe it, which would encourage him, he feared, to hold out the siege.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The message. “Thus shall ye say to Hizkiyahu king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Asshur. Behold, thou hast surely heard what (K. that which) the kings of Asshur have done to all lands, to lay the ban upon them; and thou, thou shouldst be delivered?! Have the gods of the nations, which my fathers destroyed, delivered them: Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the B e ne – Eden , which are in Tellasar? Where is (K. where is he) the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of ‘Ir-Sepharvaim, Hena’, and ‘Ivah?” Although is feminine, (K. ), like , points back to the lands (in accordance with the want of any thoroughly developed distinction of the genders in Hebrew); likewise quas pessumdederunt . There is historical importance in the fact, that here Sennacherib attributes to his fathers (Sargon and the previous kings of the Derketade dynasty which he had overthrown) what Rabshakeh on the occasion of the first mission had imputed to Sennacherib himself. On Gozan, see p. 33. It is no doubt identical with the Zuzan of the Arabian geographers, which is described as a district of outer Armenia, situated on the Chabur, e.g., in the Merasid. (“The Chabur is the Chabur of el-Hasaniye, a district of Mosul, to the east of the Tigris; it comes down from the mountains of the land of Zuzan, flows through a broad and thickly populated country in the north of Mosul, which is called outer Armenia, and empties itself into the Tigris.” Ptolemy, on the other hand (Isa 37:18, Isa 37:14), is acquainted with a Mesopotamian Gauzanitis; and, looking upon northern Mesopotamia as the border land of Armenia, he says, (not far from Edessa) , possibly the district of Gulzan, in which Nisibin, the ancient Nisibis, still stands.
(Note: See Oppert, Expdition, i. 60.)
For Hrn (Syr. Horon; Joseph. Charran of Mesopotamia), the present Harrn, not far from Charmelik, see Genesis, p. 327. The Harran in the Guta of Damascus (on the southern arm of the Harus), which Beke has recently identified with it, is not connected with it in any way. Retseph is the Rhesapha of Ptol. v. 18, 6, below Thapsacus, the present Rusafa in the Euphrates-valley of ez-Zor, between the Euphrates and Tadmur (Palmyra; see Robinson, Pal.). Telassar, with which the Targum (ii. iii.) and Syr. confound the Ellasar of Gen 14:1, i.e., Artemita (Artamita), is not the Thelseae of the Itin. Antonini and of the Notitia dignitatum – in which case the B e ne – Eden might be the tribe of Bt Genn (Bettegene) on the southern slope of Lebanon (i.e., the ‘Eden of Coelesyria, Amo 1:5; the Paradeisos of Ptol. v. 15, 20; Paradisus, Plin. v. 19) – but the Thelser of the Tab. Peuting., on the eastern side of the Tigris; and B e ne – Eden is the tribe of the ‘Eden mentioned by Ezekiel (Eze 27:23) after Haran and Ctesiphon. Consequently the enumeration of the warlike deeds describes a curve, which passes in a north-westerly direction through Hamath and Arpad, and then returns in Sepharvaim to the border of southern Mesopotamia and Babylonia. ‘Ir-S e pharvaim is like ‘Ir- Nchs, ‘Ir-shemesh, etc. The legends connect the name with the sacred books. The form of the name is inexplicable; but the name itself probably signifies the double shore (after the Aramaean), as the city, which was the southernmost of the leading places of Mesopotamia, was situated on the Euphrates. The words , if not take as proper names, would signify, “he has taken away, and overthrown;” but in that case we should expect or . They are really the names of cities which it is no longer possible to trace. Hena’ is hardly the well-known Avatho on the Euphrates, as Gesenius, V. Niebuhr, and others suppose; and ‘Ivah, the seat of the Avvm (2Ki 17:31), agrees still less, so far as the sound of the word is concerned, with “the province of Hebeh (? Hebeb: Ritter, Erdk. xi. 707), situated between Anah and the Chabur on the Euphrates,” with which V. Niebuhr combines it.
(Note: For other combinations of equal value, see Oppert, Expdition, i. 220.)
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
10. Let not thy God deceive thee. How shocking is this blasphemy, to speak of God the Author of truth, and to accuse him of falsehood and deceit, as if he actually imposed on his people! What is left to God when his truth is taken away, for nothing is more absolutely his own? God extorted this word from the wicked man, although he formerly pretended to revere some deity; for such impiety, as we have formerly said, God does not permit to remain any longer concealed.
Saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered. This quotation of the words uttered by God himself, that “Jerusalem would be preserved,” has led some to conjecture that Isaiah’s prediction had been disclosed to the king of Assyria by the traitor Shebna. But there is no need of such conjectures; for the Assyrian knew well that Hezekiah placed his hope in God, and was not ignorant of the promises which were made both to him and to David,
“
This is my rest; here will I dwell for ever and ever.” (Psa 132:14.)
Not that he gave himself any trouble about heavenly oracles, but because every person knew and talked of them, and the Jews gloried in them wonderfully, and often boasted of the assistance and protection of God in opposition to their enemies.
These promises, therefore, the tyrant meets by this blasphemy, — “Let not thy God deceive thee.” And thus he exalts himself against God, as if God were not sufficiently powerful to defend Jerusalem, and as if his own power were greater, not only than all the power of men, but even than the power of God himself. He endeavors to prove this by examples, because he has vanquished nations which were under the protection of other gods, and draws an argument from the power of his ancestors, — “They conquered the gods of other nations, and I am far superior to my ancestors; therefore the God of Israel will not conquer me.”
Thus do wicked men commonly exalt themselves more and more in prosperity, so that at length they forget that they are men, and not only claim for themselves, but even think that they surpass, Divine Majesty. Setting aside all distinction between right and wrong, satisfied with the mere power of doing injury, they glory in their own crimes and those of their ancestors, and egregiously flatter themselves on the ground of their being descended from robbers and infamous men; for frequently the most powerful of monarchs is the best entitled to be called the rich son of a great robber. This tyrant does not consider whether it was in a right or a wrong manner that so many countries came into the power of his ancestors; for they have no regard to justice or injustice, when they aim at greatness; it is enough for them if in any way, either lawful or unlawful, they can bring others under their yoke. Thus they think that they are at liberty to do whatever they can. They hold by that proverb, ( εἰ ἀδικητέον τυραννίδος περὶ ἀδικητέον) “if justice ought to be violated, it ought to be violated for the sake of reigning;” and this vice was not peculiar to a single age, but even now we feel it to be excessive.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
10-13. Sennacherib, in his arrogance and ignorance, again insults the God of Israel by lowering him to the grade of the national gods around, and boasts of the great things his predecessors had done.
Gozan Situated on the Chaboras the river Chebor of Ezekiel which flows from the north into the Euphrates.
Haran Farther west than “Gozan.” From here Abram went to Canaan.
Children of Eden If by this is meant the tribe of Eden, (see Eze 27:23,) situated on the border of Media, which is not unlikely, then a long curve of territory was made by Sennacherib to denote the extensiveness of Assyrian conquest. Nobody now knows where Hena or Ivah lay.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
trustest = confidest. Hebrew. batah.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
trustest
(See Scofield “Psa 2:12”)
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Let not: Isa 36:4, Isa 36:15, Isa 36:20, 2Ki 18:5, 2Ki 19:10-13, 2Ch 32:7, 2Ch 32:8, 2Ch 32:15-19, Psa 22:8, Mat 27:43
Reciprocal: Deu 32:27 – they should 1Ki 20:2 – General 2Ki 18:19 – What confidence Neh 6:19 – to put Psa 14:6 – Ye Psa 25:2 – let not Pro 16:18 – General Isa 10:11 – as I have Isa 36:14 – General Isa 36:18 – lest Isa 37:23 – Whom hast Isa 37:29 – rage Isa 37:38 – his god Eze 35:13 – with Mic 7:10 – Where
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
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.