Isaiah 37:23

23 "Whom have you 1reproached and blasphemed? And against whom have you raised your voice And haughtily 2lifted up your eyes? Against the 3Holy One of Israel!

Isaiah 37:23 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 37:23

Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed?
&c.] A creature like thyself? no, but a God, and not one like the gods of the nations, the idols of wood and stone, but the living God: and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice?
alluding to Rabshakeh's crying with a loud voice, ( Isaiah 36:13 ) : and lifted up thine eyes on high?
as proud and haughty persons do, disdaining to look upon those they treat with contempt: even against the Holy One of Israel;
that is, Israel's God, and will protect him; "a Holy One", and of purer eyes than to behold with pleasure such a proud blaspheming creature, and cannot look upon him but with indignation; for against such he sets himself; these he resists, pulls down, and destroys.

Isaiah 37:23 In-Context

21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says the LORD , the God of Israel, 'Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria,
22 this is the word that the LORD has spoken against him: "She has despised you and mocked you, The virgin daughter of Zion; She has shaken her head behind you, The daughter of Jerusalem!
23 "Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? And against whom have you raised your voice And haughtily lifted up your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel!
24 "Through your servants you have reproached the Lord , And you have said, 'With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains, To the remotest parts of Lebanon; And I cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses. And I will go to its highest peak, its thickest forest.
25 'I dug wells and drank waters, And with the sole of my feet I dried up All the rivers of Egypt.'

Cross References 3

  • 1. Isaiah 37:4
  • 2. Isaiah 2:11; Isaiah 5:15, 21
  • 3. Ezekiel 39:7; Habakkuk 1:12

Footnotes 1

New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, California.  All rights reserved.