Isaiah 36:20

20 Who is of all [the] gods of these lands, that delivered his land from mine hand, (and so give thou reason to believe) that the Lord (shall) deliver Jerusalem from mine hand?

Isaiah 36:20 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 36:20

Who are they amongst all the gods of these lands, that have
delivered their land out of my hand?
&c.] Not one of them, it is suggested; wherefore then should it be thought practicable, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?
thus blasphemously setting the Lord God of Israel upon a level with the fictitious gods of the Gentiles; though these could not, the Lord could, being the Lord God Almighty. If Rabshakeh was an apostate Jew, he must have known better; but the malice of such is usually the greatest.

Isaiah 36:20 In-Context

18 Hezekiah trouble not you, and say, The Lord shall deliver us. Whether the gods of folks delivered (to) each his land from the hand of the king of Assyrians? (Let not Hezekiah trouble you, and say, The Lord shall save us. Did any of the gods of these other nations rescue their lands from the hands, or the power, of the king of Assyria?)
19 Where is the god of Hamath, and of Arphad? Where is the god of Sepharvaim? Whether they delivered Samaria from mine hand?
20 Who is of all [the] gods of these lands, that delivered his land from mine hand, (and so give thou reason to believe) that the Lord (shall) deliver Jerusalem from mine hand?
21 And they were still, and answered not to him a word (and did not answer a word to him). For why the king commanded to them, and said, Answer ye not to him.
22 And Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, that was on the house, and Shebna, the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, chancellor, entered with rent clothes to Hezekiah, and told to him the words of Rabshakeh. (And then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the king's household, and Shebna, the writer, or the royal secretary, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the chancellor, entered to Hezekiah with torn clothes, and told him what Rabshakeh had said.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.