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