Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Kings 19:24

I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places.

24. I have digged and drunk strange waters ] Probably there is some allusion in this boast which is put into the mouth of Sennacherib to the attempts made by Hezekiah (2Ch 32:3-4) to deprive the Assyrians of a supply of water. Sennacherib means to say: ‘Do what you may I am able by digging wells wherever I go to get water for my host, even where none had been found before’. This is most likely the sense of ‘strange’, which word does not appear in the corresponding verse of Isaiah.

And with the sole of my feet have I dried ] [R.V. will I dry ] up all the rivers of besieged places] R.V. of Egypt. This is a boast of the opposite nature. In Juda the trouble might be that there was too little water. In Egypt there would be too much. But as in the former case the Assyrian could surmount all difficulties, so he had but to march into Egypt, and at his approach the Nile should be dried up and make a way for his troops to pass. The change of tense in the verb is necessary from the Hebrew, and the language is the proud king’s way of saying ‘As soon as I have reduced Jerusalem, I will pass on to Egypt and win that land too’.

The word translated ‘rivers’ is the Heb. ‘Yeor’ and is a proper name of the Nile. See R.V. Gen 41:1 margin. It is translated ‘Nile’ in R.V. of Isa 19:7, three times over. Also the word rendered ‘besieged places’ is the Hebrew ‘Mazor’ another form for ‘Mizraim’ the common word for ‘Egypt’, ‘Mazor’ is translated ‘Egypt’ in R.V. both here and in Isa 19:6, and Mic 7:12.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Have digged and drunk … and dried up – The meaning seems to be – Mountains do not stop me – I cross them even in my chariots. Deserts do not stop me – I dig wells there, and drink the water. Rivers do not stop me – I pass them as easily as if they were dry land.

The rivers of besieged places – Rather, the rivers of Egypt. The singular form, Mazor (compare the modern Misr and the Assyrian Muzr), is here used instead of the ordinary dual form, Mizraim, perhaps because Lower Egypt only is intended. This was so cut up with canals and branches of the Nile, natural and artificial, that it was regarded as impassable for chariots and horses. Sennacherib, however, thought that these many streams would prove no impediments to him; he would advance as fast as if they were dried up.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 24. I have dipped and drunk strange waters] I have conquered strange countries, in which I have digged wells for my army; or, I have gained the wealth of strange countries.

With the sole of my feet] My infantry have been so numerous that they alone have been sufficient to drink up the rivers of the places I have besieged.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Strange waters; such as were never discovered nor used by others. And therefore all thy endeavours to deprive me of water for my army, 2Ch 32:3, are idle and fruitless.

With the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places; and as I can furnish my army with water digged out of the earth, by their labour, and my art; so I can deprive my enemies of their water, and can dry up their rivers, and that with the sole of my feet, i.e. with the march of my vast and numerous army, who will easily do this, either by marching through them, and each carrying part away with them; or by drinking every one a little of them; or by their pains making many new channels, and driving the waters of the river into them, as Cyrus dried up Euphrates, and thereby took Babylon.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

[See comments on 2Ki 19:1]

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(24) I have digged and drunk strange waters.Scarcity of water has hitherto been no bar to my advance. In foreign and hostile lands, where the fountains and cisterns have been stopped and covered in (2Ch. 32:3), I have digged new wells.

And with the sole . . . places.Rather, and I will dry up with the sole of my feet all the Nile arms of Mri.e., Lower Egypt. (Comp. Isa. 19:5 seq.) Neither mountains nor rivers avail to stop my progress. As the style is poetical, perhaps it would be correct to take the perfects, which in 2Ki. 19:23-24 alternate with imperfects, in a future sense: II will ascend lofty mountains . . . I will dig and drink strange waters the latter in the arid desert that lies between Egypt and Palestine (the Et-Th). Otherwise, both perfects and imperfects may mark what is habitual: I ascend . . . I dig.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

24. Strange waters That is, waters of foreign countries; waters strange to a native Assyrian. He boasts that he enters strange lands, and digs and drinks their waters.

With the sole of my feet As though I were a god, and able to dry up rivers by merely setting my foot upon their waters.

All the rivers of besieged places Better, all the canals of Matzor; commonly rendered, all the streams of Egypt. , Matzor, is a poetical name for Egypt, (compare Isa 19:6,) and the rivers would naturally refer to the arms or canals of the Nile. So this verse contains Sennacherib’s boast of what he intends to do to Egypt. “Just as Lebanon could not stop the expeditions of the Assyrians, or keep them back from the conquest of the land of Canaan, so the desert which separated Egypt from Asia, notwithstanding its want of water, could not prevent his forcing his way through it and laying Egypt waste. The digging of water is not merely ‘a reopening of the wells that had been choked up with rubbish, and the cisterns that had been covered up before the approaching enemy,’ ( Thenius,) but the digging of wells in the waterless desert. Strange water is not merely water belonging to others, but water not belonging to this soil, that is, water supplied by a region which had none at other times. By the perfects [ I have digged, etc.] the thing is represented as already done as exposed to no doubt whatever. The drying up of the rivers with the soles of the feet is an hyperbolical expression denoting the omnipotence with which the Assyrian rules over the earth. Just as he digs water in the desert where no water is to be had, so does he annihilate it where mighty rivers exist.” Keil.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments