Isaiah 36:17

17 Then I will come and take you away to a country like your own. It's a country with grain and new wine, a country with bread and vineyards.

Isaiah 36:17 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 36:17

Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land,
&c.]. Some have thought, as Jerom observes, that the land of Media was meant, which bore some likeness to the land of Judea in situation and fruitfulness. Maimonides thinks that Africa is intended F12. Rabshakeh names no land, nor could he name any like, or equal to, the land of Canaan; he could not conceal his intention to remove them from their own land to another; this having been always done by the king of Assyria to people conquered by him, and as was usual for conquerors to do, that so the conquered might have no expectation or opportunity of recovering their own land: a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards;
corn for bread, and vineyards for wine, and both for food and drink; such a land was the land of Judea. The description agrees with ( Deuteronomy 8:8 ) . Rabshakeh was well acquainted with the land of Judea; and this seems to confirm the conjecture of the Jews, that he was one of their people, since he could speak their language, and describe their land so well; all this he said to sooth and persuade them to a voluntary surrender.


FOOTNOTES:

F12 See T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 94. 1.

Isaiah 36:17 In-Context

15 Don't let Hezekiah get you to trust the LORD by saying, 'The LORD will certainly rescue us, and this city will not be put under the control of the king of Assyria.'
16 Don't listen to Hezekiah, because this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me! Come out, and give yourselves up to me! Everyone will eat from his own grapevine and fig tree and drink from his own cistern.
17 Then I will come and take you away to a country like your own. It's a country with grain and new wine, a country with bread and vineyards.
18 Don't let Hezekiah mislead you by saying to you, 'The LORD will rescue us.' Did any of the gods of the nations rescue their countries from the king of Assyria?
19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Did they rescue Samaria from my control?
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