Isaiah 37:29

29 I have received the report of that rage and that pride of yours, and now I will put a hook through your nose and a bit in your mouth and will take you back by the same road you came."

Isaiah 37:29 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 37:29

Because thy rage against me, and thy tumult is come up into
mine ears
. The rage which Sennacherib expressed both by Rabshakeh, and in his letter against Hezekiah and his people, is taken by the Lord as against himself; so great was his care of them, and concern for them; and indeed there was a great deal of blasphemy belched out against himself; and so the Syriac version renders the next word, translated "tumult", "thy blasphemy"; though that may rather intend the blustering noise that Rabshakeh made, or the noise of the Assyrian army, the chariots and horsemen, and the multitude of the soldiers, which was not only heard by the Jews, and was terrible to them, but was taken notice of by the Lord, who had it in derision; hence he adds: therefore will I put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips;
comparing Sennacherib to leviathan, or the great whale, or to some very large and unruly fish, not easily caught and managed; see ( Job 41:1 ) ( Ezekiel 29:3 Ezekiel 29:4 ) , or to a bear, or buffalo, in whose noses men put iron rings, and lead them about at pleasure; and also to a horse or mule, which are managed by the bit and bridle; signifying hereby the strength, fierceness, and fury of the Assyrian monarch, and the power of God to restrain him, which he could easily do: and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest;
from Jerusalem, the same way he came to it, to his own land again, and so he did, ( Isaiah 37:37 ) .

Isaiah 37:29 In-Context

27 The people who lived there were powerless; they were frightened and stunned. They were like grass in a field or weeds growing on a roof when the hot east wind blasts them.

28 "But I know everything about you, what you do and where you go. I know how you rage against me.

29 I have received the report of that rage and that pride of yours, and now I will put a hook through your nose and a bit in your mouth and will take you back by the same road you came."

30 Then Isaiah said to King Hezekiah, "Here is a sign of what will happen. This year and next you will have only wild grain to eat, but the following year you will be able to plant grain and harvest it, and plant vines and eat grapes.

31 Those in Judah who survive will flourish like plants that send roots deep into the ground and produce fruit.