Isaiah 36:17

17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

Isaiah 36:17 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 36:17

Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land,
&c.]. Some have thought, as Jerom observes, that the land of Media was meant, which bore some likeness to the land of Judea in situation and fruitfulness. Maimonides thinks that Africa is intended F12. Rabshakeh names no land, nor could he name any like, or equal to, the land of Canaan; he could not conceal his intention to remove them from their own land to another; this having been always done by the king of Assyria to people conquered by him, and as was usual for conquerors to do, that so the conquered might have no expectation or opportunity of recovering their own land: a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards;
corn for bread, and vineyards for wine, and both for food and drink; such a land was the land of Judea. The description agrees with ( Deuteronomy 8:8 ) . Rabshakeh was well acquainted with the land of Judea; and this seems to confirm the conjecture of the Jews, that he was one of their people, since he could speak their language, and describe their land so well; all this he said to sooth and persuade them to a voluntary surrender.


FOOTNOTES:

F12 See T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 94. 1.

Isaiah 36:17 In-Context

15 Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, The LORD will surely deliver us, this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
16 Do not hearken unto Hezekiah, for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make peace with me and come out to me and eat each one of his vine and each one of his fig tree and drink each one the waters of his own cistern
17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
18 Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, The LORD will deliver us. Have any of the gods of the Gentiles delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
19 Where is the god of Hamath and Arphad? Where is the god of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?
The Jubilee Bible (from the Scriptures of the Reformation), edited by Russell M. Stendal, Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2010