Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 37:23
Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted [thy] voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? [even] against the Holy One of Israel.
23. “What sort of being is He whom thou hast defied?” The first two sentences are rhetorical questions, and require no answer. The last sentence is to be read as an affirmation: Yea, thou hast lifted up thine eyes to the height against the Holy One of Israel. To “lift up the voice” means here to speak proudly, not as often to cry aloud (e.g. ch. Isa 13:2).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
When hast thou reproached? – Not an idol. Not one who has no power to take vengeance, or to defend the city under his protection, but the living God.
Exalted thy voice – That is, by thy messenger. Thou hast spoken in a loud, confident tone; in the language of reproach and threatening.
And lifted up thine eyes on high – To lift up the eyes is an indication of haughtiness and pride. He had evinced arrogance in his manner, and he was yet to learn that it was against the living and true God.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 37:23
Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed?
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Isaiahs saving idea of God
Isaiah in his day saved Jerusalem by teaching the people a better idea of their God. For forty years he had been witnessing to a truer thought of God, and at last the crisis and the triumph of his religious statesmanship came. Jerusalem would have surrendered to Assyria had not Isaiah at last brought king and people, in their despair, to the faith in God to which for forty years he had borne witness. At an hour when the Assyrian was making his rapid march towards the city, two props of the peoples confidence had entirely given way: their reliance upon Egypt, and their confidence in their religion. Isaiah had told them over and over again that these supports were rotten, and would give way when the crash came. And they did when at last came the scourge of the nations which had swept other cities before it reached Jerusalem. For a moment the luridness of the popular despair was lit up by a wild light of passion and revelry: Let us eat and drink, they said, for to-morrow we shall die. Then the hour for the triumph of the prophets lifelong truth was come. He led a sobered people and a humbled king to the Holy One of Israel (Newman Smyth, D. D.)
The Divine holiness and Fatherhood
The historic truth is that wherever a better idea of God prevails men are delivered. The deep, permanent, at all times greatly needed lesson is, that the prophets truer teaching of God is for the salvation of a city. The subject for us to inquire concerning is, whether we are being saved by any truer, stronger ideas of our God? Are we saving our society, our neighbour-hood, our city, our land by nobler knowledge of God?
1. Do you hope to work out the redemption of men by education? It is a means, a sharp instrument for good or evil, but Rabshakeh could blaspheme in two languages. We have to face the question: What leaven is to keep the school itself from moral corruption?
2. But much, it is said, may be accomplished through sanitary and political science. Undoubtedly. Even Ahaz did a good thing when he looked after the water supply of Jerusalem in fear of a siege, although he would not hear a word that Isaiah was saying to him by the upper pool in the fullers field. But if Isaiah had not been the heart and the soul of the city in its critical hour, all the work that the kings had done in repairing the walls and looking after the watercourses, would never have kept the Assyrian out. Sooner or later we shall have to go down to the God on whom we depend, if we are to build anything of permanent worth.
3. What, then, is our better saving thought of God?
(1) We are coming to know better the Divine Fatherhood of men.
(2) Yet, this first truth of the Divine Fatherhood of men, and His special Fatherhood towards the son of His trust and love, does not exhaust our redeeming knowledge of God. Our text exalts the Holy One of Israel. Isaiahs vision of Him whose glory fills the whole earth was the vision of the Holy One. In the holiness of the prophet saw the falsehoods of the court and the people burning as with everlasting fire. And when Jesus Christ in that sublime moment to which St. John has borne witness in the seventeenth chapter of his Gospel, summed up His whole lifelong teaching in His last prayer for the disciples, He lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father, Holy Father, O righteous Father.
(3) There is one way in particular by which we, with all our worldliness, may be brought more fully into the saving power of these truths of God. It is through our increasing sense of Gods omnipresence, of the Divine immanence, of Immanuel, God with us. (Newman Smyth, D. D.)
God His peoples defence
A magistrate in Hamburg once held up his finger and said to Mr. Oncken, the Baptist preacher: Do you see that finger, sir? As long as I can hold up that finger I shall put you down. I can see, said Mr. Oncken, what you cannot see; I can see the mighty arm of God, and as long as that arm is held up for my defence, you will never be able to put me down. (Christian Age.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 23. Against the Holy One of Israel.] For el, to, the other copy has al, against, rather more properly.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
23. Whomnot an idol.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed?…. A creature like thyself? no, but a God, and not one like the gods of the nations, the idols of wood and stone, but the living God:
and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice? alluding to Rabshakeh’s crying with a loud voice, Isa 36:13:
and lifted up thine eyes on high? as proud and haughty persons do, disdaining to look upon those they treat with contempt:
even against the Holy One of Israel; that is, Israel’s God, and will protect him; “a Holy One”, and of purer eyes than to behold with pleasure such a proud blaspheming creature, and cannot look upon him but with indignation; for against such he sets himself; these he resists, pulls down, and destroys.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
23. Whom hast thou reproached? In the former verse he describes the fact, such as it might be seen and beheld by all; but now he raises their minds higher, by shewing that this tyrant insults not only Jerusalem but God himself. Let this passage be brought to our remembrance, whenever we see ourselves exposed to the taunts and insolence of wicked men; for, though we have no armor, and though no one undertakes our defense, and though our weakness prompts our enemies to growing insolence, yet the Lord is near and will defend us as with an ample shield, for they who fight against us wage war with the living God. Nor were these words spoken merely for the sake of a single age, but on the contrary, as this promise is perpetual,
“
I will be thy God and thy shield,” (Gen 15:1,)
“
I will be a friend to thy friends, and an adversary to thy adversaries,” (Gen 12:3; Exo 23:22,)
so the less strength that is left to us, let us be more fully convinced that the power of God is close at hand. Since therefore the Lord hath entered into covenant with us on the condition of undertaking our cause, let us not doubt that he will actually fulfill it, and will shew that the insults which are offered to us are offered to himself. In a word, he is joined to us in such a manner that he wishes all that belongs to him and to us to be in common.
Besides, those reproaches which Sennacherib had thrown out against the Church God applies to himself, in order to shew that wicked men are greatly mistaken when they are proud of their greatness, as if they would escape punishment for treading on the Church, because she is lying at their feet. We know that they treat with contempt the providence of God; and especially when they see believers groaning under the yoke, they think them unworthy of receiving assistance from God, who therefore rises up and testifies that the contempt shewn to his poor flock grieves him as much as if his majesty were openly dishonored. Although, therefore, enemies think that we are forsaken by God when they see us destitute of earthly resources, and on that account commit grosser outrage, as if we were given to them for a prey, yet, on the other hand, God declares that our salvation is dear and precious to him.
Against whom hast thou raised thy voice? The Prophet employs a variety of terms in describing the disdain and insolence of this haughty man, as one who in speech, in face, in gesture, in his eyes, and, in short, in the whole attitude of his body, was absolutely intolerable; for tyrants, having such an opinion of themselves, assume such airs and look down on every one else as if they had fallen down from heaven.
Against the Holy One of Israel. At length he adds, that, although the affairs of the nation are at a low ebb, still God, under whose protection they are placed, remains in heaven as powerful as ever, he thus censures the madness of Sennacherib in judging of a nation from earthly appearances, and not considering that they were dedicated and consecrated to God. In order, therefore, that we may remain safe through the power of God: and that his arm may give us seasonable aid, we must be his Israel; which will be the case if, relying on his word, we
“
recline under the shadow of his wings.” (Psa 36:7.)
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(23) Whom hast thou reproached . . .The manifold iteration of the question emphasises the force of the answer. The Holy One of Israel, at whom the scornful revellers had sneered (Isa. 30:11), was now seen to be the one mighty deliverer.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
23. Whom blasphemed Not a senseless idol, like the gods you boast of as being superior to Him, as you will soon know to your harm.
Against whom exalted thy voice That is, by Rabshakeh’s speaking to the people on the walls, in a loud and confident tone.
Lifted up thine eyes on high Descriptive of the haughty and arrogant air assumed against the living and true God.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
the Holy One of Israel. See note on Isa 1:4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Whom hast: Isa 37:10-13, Exo 5:2, 2Ki 19:4, 2Ki 19:22, 2Ch 32:17, Psa 44:16, Psa 73:9, Psa 74:18, Psa 74:23, Rev 13:1-6
against whom: Isa 10:13-15, Isa 14:13, Isa 14:14, Exo 9:17, Pro 30:13, Eze 28:2, Eze 28:9, Dan 5:20-23, Dan 7:25, 2Th 2:4
the Holy One: Isa 10:20, Isa 12:6, Isa 17:7, Isa 30:11, Isa 30:12, Isa 41:14, Isa 41:16, Isa 43:3, Isa 43:14, Exo 15:11, Eze 39:7, Hab 1:12, Hab 1:13
Reciprocal: Exo 15:7 – them that Num 15:30 – reproacheth 1Sa 2:3 – let not arrogancy 1Sa 17:36 – seeing 1Sa 17:45 – defied 2Sa 3:8 – do show 2Sa 22:28 – but thine 2Ki 18:35 – that the Lord 1Ch 20:7 – defied Psa 10:3 – boasteth Psa 22:7 – shake Psa 80:6 – our enemies Psa 83:2 – lifted Psa 94:2 – render Psa 139:20 – for they speak Isa 1:4 – the Holy Isa 5:15 – the eyes Isa 33:11 – your Isa 36:15 – General Isa 36:20 – that the Lord Isa 37:4 – to reproach Isa 57:4 – Against Jer 48:42 – magnified Jer 50:29 – for she hath Lam 1:9 – for Eze 35:13 – with Dan 3:15 – and who Dan 5:23 – lifted Dan 8:11 – he magnified Mal 3:13 – Your Mat 15:11 – but Act 12:23 – because
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
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.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Moreover, Assyria had spoken disparagingly of the Holy One of Israel. She had reproached, blasphemed, spoken out against, and lifted her eyes proudly against Him. As the person of God filled Hezekiah’s prayer (Isa 37:16-20), so the person of God filled Isaiah’s response.