Isaiah 36:18

18 lest Hezekiah mislead you, saying, 'Yahweh will save us!' Did the gods of the nations each save his land from 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 You must not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: "Make a blessing with me, and come out to me, and each one will eat [from] his vine and [from] his fig tree and drink water from his cistern,
17 until {I come} and take you to a land like your land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards,
18 lest Hezekiah mislead you, saying, 'Yahweh will save us!' Did the gods of the nations each save his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?
19 Where [are] the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where [are] the gods of Sepharvaim? Indeed, [have] they delivered Samaria from my hand?
20 Who [are there] among all the gods of these countries who have saved their land from my hand, that Yahweh should save Jerusalem from my hand?" '"
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.