For the Lord hath turned away the excellency of Jacob,
as
the excellency of Israel
Or, "will render" a recompence for, or "revenge the pride of
Jacob" F5; all that insolence, and those
injuries done in a proud and haughty manner by Sennacherib king
of Assyria to the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin; invading
their land, taking their fenced cities, and besieging their
metropolis; and in an audacious manner threatening them with
utter destruction, unless they surrendered; and also by
Shalmaneser, another king of Assyria, who had besieged and took
Samaria the capital city of Israel or the ten tribes, and had
carried them captive; and now Assyria, though it had been the rod
of God's anger, and the instrument of his chastisement and
correction of his people, must in its turn suffer and smart for
all this: for the emptiers have emptied them
out:
the Assyrians, partly by their exactions and tributes they
demanded, and partly by their spoil and plunder, had stripped
Israel and Judah of all, or the greatest part, of their
substance, wealth, and treasure: and marred their vine
branches;
their children, their sons and daughters, slaying them, or
carrying them captive. Israel and Judah are often compared to a
vine, and so their posterity to branches: or "corrupted"
F6 them, with superstition and
idolatry. The Targum interprets it of their renowned cities;
these, and towns and villages, being to the land as branches to
the vine; and which had been ransacked and pillaged by the
Assyrians, and now they should be paid in their own coin.
F5 (bqey Nwag ta hwhy bv yk) "ulciscitur enim Jehova adhibitam in Jacobaeos superbiam", Castalio; "reponit Deus Assyrio illam superbiam quam ipse in Jacobo et Israele exercuit", Grotius; "quia reddidit superbiam" Tirinus.
F6 (wtxv) "corruperunt", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Vatablus, Burkius.
