Isaiah 36:18

18 Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, The LORD will deliver us. Have any of the gods of the Gentiles delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

Isaiah 36:18 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 36:18

Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you
To trust in the Lord, stand up in your own defence and not listen to these proposals; or, lest he "deceive you" F13; with vain words; whom he would represent not only as not being their lawful king, and therefore never gives him that title, but also as a deceiver and impostor, of whom they should be cautious, and guard against: saying, the Lord will deliver us;
and therefore need not fear the boasts and threats, the force and fury, of the enemy: hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his land;
over whom he presided, and to whom the people of it were devotees: out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
this reasoning would have had some weight in it had the Lord God of Israel been like the gods of the nations, but he is not; he is the Former and Maker of all things, and sits in the heavens, and does whatsoever he pleases in heaven and in earth; and therefore, though they could not deliver their nations that worshipped them, it did not follow that the God of Israel could not deliver Hezekiah and his people.


FOOTNOTES:

F13 (Mkta tyoy Np) "ne forte decipiat vos", Calvin, Vatablus; "ne seducat vos", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Isaiah 36:18 In-Context

16 Do not hearken unto Hezekiah, for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make peace with me and come out to me and eat each one of his vine and each one of his fig tree and drink each one the waters of his own cistern
17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
18 Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, The LORD will deliver us. Have any of the gods of the Gentiles delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
19 Where is the god of Hamath and Arphad? Where is the god of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?
20 What god is there among all the gods of these lands that have delivered their land out of my hand that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?
The Jubilee Bible (from the Scriptures of the Reformation), edited by Russell M. Stendal, Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2010