Isaia 36:7

7 E se mi dici: Noi confidiamo nell’Eterno, nel nostro Dio, non è egli quello stesso di cui Ezechia ha soppresso gli alti luoghi e gli altari, dicendo a Giuda e a Gerusalemme: Vi prostrerete dinanzi a questo altare qui?

Isaia 36:7 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 36:7

But if thou say to me, we trust in the Lord our God
In his promises, providence, power, and protection, and not in human counsels and strength; not in allies and auxiliaries, as Pharaoh king of Egypt; should this be replied, Rabshakeh has something to say to that; having shown the vanity of trusting in the above things, he now proceeds to beat them off of all trust in the Lord their God: is it not he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken
away;
the question might easily be answered in the negative; no, he has not; the high places and altars which Hezekiah took away were the high places and altars of Heathen gods, of false deities, and not of the true God of Israel, and which was to his honour and glory; but Rabshakeh would make a crime of it, and, ignorantly supposing that these were the altars and high places of the God of Israel, would insinuate that the taking of these away must be displeasing to him, and consequently Hezekiah and his people could not hope for any protection from him, whom he had so highly affronted; but all this talk was the fruit of ignorance, as well as of malice: and said to Judah, and to Jerusalem, ye shall worship before this
altar?
the altar of the Lord, in the temple at Jerusalem, and before that only, confining their religious worship to one place, and their sacrifices to one altar; which was so far from being displeasing to God, as he would insinuate, that it was entirely agreeable to his will: and therefore there was no weight or strength in this kind of reasoning.

Isaia 36:7 In-Context

5 Io te lo dico; non sono che le parole delle labbra; per la guerra ci vuol prudenza e forza; ora, in chi hai tu riposta la tua fiducia per ribellarti a me?

6 Ecco, tu confidi nell’Egitto, in quel sostegno di canna rotta, ch’entra nella mano e la fora a chi vi s’appoggia; tal è Faraone, re d’Egitto, per tutti quelli che confidano in lui.

7 E se mi dici: Noi confidiamo nell’Eterno, nel nostro Dio, non è egli quello stesso di cui Ezechia ha soppresso gli alti luoghi e gli altari, dicendo a Giuda e a Gerusalemme: Vi prostrerete dinanzi a questo altare qui?

8 Or dunque fa’ una scommessa col mio signore, il re d’Assiria: io ti darò duemila cavalli, se tu puoi fornire tanti cavalieri da montarli.

9 E come potresti tu far voltar le spalle a un solo capitano fra i minimi servi del mio signore? Ma tu confidi nell’Egitto per avere de’ carri e dei cavalieri.