This is the word which the Lord hath spoken concerning
him,
&c.] The sentence he has pronounced upon him, the punishment
he has determined to inflict on him, in answer to Hezekiah's
prayer against him: the virgin, the daughter of Zion; hath
despised thee; and laughed thee
to scorn;
that, is the inhabitants of Zion, particularly of the fort of
Zion, called a "virgin", because it had never been forced, or
taken and to show that it was a vain thing in Sennacherib to
attempt it, as well as it would have been an injurious one, could
he have accomplished it; since God, the Father of this virgin,
would carefully keep her from such a rape; and he who was her
husband to whom she was espoused as a chaste virgin, would defend
and protect her; and the whole is designed to show the impotent
malice of the king of Assyria; otherwise, at the time when these
words were spoken, the daughter of Zion was in a fearful and
trembling condition, and not in a laughing frame; but this
declares what she might do now, and would do hereafter, for
anything that he could do against her. The Targum paraphrases it,
``the kingdom of the congregation of Zion;''the whole nation. Some restrain this to the inhabitants of the upper part of the city of Jerusalem, as what follows to those of the lower part: the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee;
or "after thee F15"; by way of scorn and derision; that is when he fled; which shows, that though these things are spoken as if they were past, after the manner of the prophets, yet were to come, and would be when Sennacherib fled, upon the destruction of his army. Of this phrase, as expressive of scorn, see ( Psalms 22:7 ) ( 109:25 ) ( Lamentations 2:15 ) . The Targum is, "the people that dwell in Jerusalem"
F15 (Kyrxa) "post te", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
