27 lift it up on the way to Egypt. And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the fatness.

XIV.

25

24 JEHOVAH OF HOSTS hath sworn, saying, Surely as I had in mind, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand, that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains I will tread him under foot. Then shall his yoke depart from off them, 26 and his burden depart from off their shoulders. This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the 27 nations. For Jehovah of hosts hath purposed, and who shall annul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?

ber for the service of the Assyrian army. They have passed by the city of Gaza, which is known by the fish-god Dagon. See Bonomi's Nineveh, fig. 53. We may compare this sculpture with Herodotus ii. 141, where we are told that Sennacherib's army was at the siege of Pelusium in Egypt; and again with Psalm xlviii. 7, where we read that the ships of Tarshish were broken with an east wind, and thereby the enemies of Judah were defeated. We may hence conclude that the loss of these ships was a serious check to Sennacherib, and may be the blow inflicted on him mentioned in our

text.

27 His burden shall be taken from off thy shoulder.] The overthrow of the Phenician vessels was immediately followed by Sennacherib's return home, and the relief of Judea for the time from the invader.

No. 14. [Chap. xiv. 24-27.]

AGAINST THE ASSYRIANS.

25 I will break the Assyrian.] These few verses relate to the same time of Sennacherib's retreat; his occupation of Judea is at an end.

[XVII.

AND IN THAT DAY it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall lean. And it shall be as when the grow reaper gathereth the standing corn, and his arm reapeth the ears; and it shall be as when one picketh up ears of corn in the Valley of Giants. And only gleanings shall be left on it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries on the top of the uppermost bough, four or five on the outmost fruit-bearers thereof; Jehovah the God of Israel hath said it.

4

5

In that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his 7 eyes shall have regard to the Holy One of Israel. And 8 he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall regard that which his fingers have made, either the images of Ashera, or the Sun-images.

IN THAT DAY shall his strong cities be as the abandon-9

No. 15. [Chap. xvii. 4-11.]

ON THE RUINED STATE OF THE COUNTRY.

In that day.] When the land of Judah had been overrun by Sennacherib, and left with its population destroyed, and its cities in ruins.

5 The Valley of Giants.] A valley on the south-west side of Jerusalem. See Josh. xv. 8. Probably a valley not suitable for growing corn.

8 The altars, the work of his hands.] Hezekiah, at the beginning of his reign, had gratified the priests of Jerusalem by ordering all altars on the High Places to be destroyed, under the plea of their being idolatrous (2 Kings xviii. 4).

The images of Ashera.] These idolatrous objects are sometimes spoken of as images which could be carried, as in 2 Kings xxiii. 6; and sometimes as groves to be planted, as in Deut. xvi. 21. Perhaps they may have been images standing in groves.

Sun images.] The form of these images is uncertain. There were several towns whose names tell us that the Canaanites had worshipped the sun, such as Bethshemesh, house of the sun, Ir-shemesh, city of the sun.

ment of a thicket-camp, or of a hill-camp, which [the Amorites] forsook because of the children of Israel. 10 And there shall be desolation. Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the Rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips; in the day of thy planting thou shalt make a hedge, and in the morning thou shalt make thy seed to flourish; but the harvest shall flee away in the day of possession, and there shall be desperate sorrow.

11

IV.

1 And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, 'We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by thy name, to 'take away our reproach.'

XXXVI.

1 Now IT CAME TO PASS in the fourteenth

year

of king

9 As the abandonment of a thicket camp.] The Greek of the LXX explains this "as the cities which the Amorites and Hivites left." David, when he fled from Saul, dwelt in such a thicket-camp (1 Sam. xxiii. 15). They were but feeble defences; and Jotham strengthened them by adding forts and towers (2 Chron. xxvii. 4).

No. 16. [Chap. iv. 1.]

THE MALE POPULATION HAD BEEN DESTROYED.

1 Seven women.] In these few words we have a dreadful picture of the state of the country as it was left by the Assyrians in the latter half of Hezekiah's reign. The male population, boys and men, had been alike slaughtered when met with. The women had been spared to gratify the passions of the brutal conquerors. When those who had saved themselves by flight returned to their homes, the disproportion in number between the sexes was so great as seem to authorize these words.

No. 17. [Chap. xxxvi.-xxxviii.]

These three chapters we have also, with some variation, in 2 Kings xviii.-xx. They contain the history of

2

Hezekiah [B.C. 714], that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them. And the king of Assyria sent Rab-shakeh [or the chief butler] from Lachish to Jerusalem unto king Hezekiah with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the Upper Pool in the highway of the fuller's field. Then went forth to him Eliakim, the son 3 of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna

some of the events spoken of in the prophetic writings, to which these chapters have furnished the clue. Hence in reading them we are going over ground that we have already trod.

1 In the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah.] B.C. 714. Hezekiah had begun his reign as an obedient tributary to Assyria, as his father Ahaz had been; but after a time had been tempted to withhold the tribute. This act of disobedience was probably encouraged by Mardoc Empadus or Merodac-baludan, who in B.C. 720 came to the tributary throne of Babylon, and either then or soon afterwards revolted from Nineveh. On Sennacherib's first invasion of Judea, Hezekiah submitted, and paid a heavy fine (2 Kings xviii. 14). The siege of Jerusalem mentioned in chap. xxii. 1-7 may have been on that invasion by Sennacherib.

Another invasion of Judea, probably yet earlier, is the passing of the Assyrians by Jerusalem as mentioned in chap. x. 28-34.

Both of these probably took place before B.C. 714. 2 Rab-shakeh.] This is not a name, but a title, the Chief Butler.

From Lachish.] Where Sennacherib had a camp for the convenience of his armies in the attack on Egypt.

The conduit of the Upper Pool.] On the high ground at the head of the valley of Gihon, from which Jerusalem is most easily attacked. David stormed the city from that side (2 Sam. v. 8).

3 Eliakim, who was over the household.] Thus Eliakim had gained the chief post, as said in Note on chap. xxii. 20. He represented the policy of resisting the Assyrians.

the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder. 4 And Rab-shakeh said to them 'Say ye now to Heze'kiah, Thus saith the Great King, the king of Assyria, 5. What trust is this wherein thou trustest ? Thou

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speakest only words of the lips as counsel and 6 strength of war. Now on whom dost thou trust, that 6' thou hast rebelled against me? Behold, thou trustest on the support of this broken reed, even on Egypt; on 'which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce ' it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust on ' him. But if thou say to me, We trust in Jehovah our God, is not that he, whose High Places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away? And he saith to 'Judah and to Jerusalem, Ye shall worship him before 8 this altar. Now therefore give pledges, I pray thee, 6 to my lord the king of Assyria, and I will deliver to thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part 9' to put chariots to them. How then wilt thou turn away the face of one Pasha [or captain] of the least of my master's servants, and put thy trust on Egypt for 10 chariots and for horsemen ? And am I now come up 'without Jehovah against this land to destroy it? 'Jehovah said to me, Go up against this land and 11'destroy it?' Then said Eliakim and Shebna and Joah

6 Thou trustest on Egypt.] The statesmen of Jerusalem hoped that one of these two great kingdoms would save them from the other; and they had found the Egyptians more tender towards them than the Assyrians.

The

7 Whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away.] worship at the High Places had been forbidden at the wish of the priests of Jerusalem; and the Assyrian general hoped to profit by the discontent occasioned thereby, on the supposition that Jerusalem was then full of people who had fled there for safety from the country, and who were grievously offended at the High Places being closed.

9 One Pasha.] This foreign title is now first known to the Hebrew writers.