21 "This is the word that the Lord has spoken against him: 'She has despised you and mocked you, The virgin daughter of Zion ; She has shaken her head behind you, The daughter of Jerusalem ! 22 'Whom have you reproached and blasphemed ? And against whom have you raised your voice , And haughtily lifted up your eyes ? Against the Holy One of Israel ! 23 ' Through your messengers you have reproached the Lord , And you have said , "With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains , To the remotest parts of Lebanon ; And I cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses . And I entered its farthest lodging place , its thickest forest . 24 "I dug wells and drank foreign waters , And with the sole of my feet I dried up All the rivers of Egypt ." 25 ' Have you not heard ? Long ago I did it; From ancient times I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass , That you should turn e fortified cities into ruinous heaps . 26 'Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength , They were dismayed and put to shame ; They were as the vegetation of the field and as the green herb , As grass on the housetops is scorched before it is grown up. 27 'But I know your sitting down , And your going out and your coming in, And your raging against Me. 28 'Because of your raging against Me, And because your arrogance has come up to My ears , Therefore I will put My hook in your nose , And My bridle in your lips , And I will turn you back by the way which you came .
Matthew Henry's Commentary on 2 Kings 19:21-28
Commentary on 2 Kings 19:20-34
(Read 2 Kings 19:20-34)
All Sennacherib's motions were under the Divine cognizance. God himself undertakes to defend the city; and that person, that place, cannot but be safe, which he undertakes to protect. The invasion of the Assyrians probably had prevented the land from being sown that year. The next is supposed to have been the sabbatical year, but the Lord engaged that the produce of the land should be sufficient for their support during those two years. As the performance of this promise was to be after the destruction of Sennacherib's army, it was a sign to Hezekiah's faith, assuring him of that present deliverance, as an earnest of the Lord's future care of the kingdom of Judah. This the Lord would perform, not for their righteousness, but his own glory. May our hearts be as good ground, that his word may strike root therein, and bring forth fruit in our lives.