Isaiah 36:8

8 And now please make a wager with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, [that is,] if you are able {put} riders for yourself on them!

Isaiah 36:8 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 36:8

Now therefore give pledges to my master the king of Assyria,
&c.] Or; "hostages" ^F8; that thou wilt not rebel against him, but be faithful to him, and he will withdraw his army; or give security for the horses after promised: "or mingle thyself with him"; agree the matter with him, give pledges for future fidelity; or join in battle with him, come out and fight him, if able: and I will give thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part
to set riders on them;
thus scoffing at him, as if he had not so many soldiers to bring out against him; or so many men in his kingdom as had skill enough to ride a horse; in his bravado he signifies, that if he would come out and fight him, he would lend him so many horses, if he could put men upon them, to assist him; this he said as boasting of his master's strength and power, and in scorn and derision at Hezekiah's weakness.

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FOOTNOTES:

F8 (breth) "da obsides", Vatablus; "paciscere cum domino meo, Gataker; "misceto, quaeso, [bellum] cum domino meo", Junius & Tremellius.

Isaiah 36:8 In-Context

6 Look, you trust in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt, which [if] a man leans on it, goes into his hand and bores through it! Such [is] Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all those who trust in him.

7 And if you say to me, 'We trust in Yahweh our God,' [was it] not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed? And he said to Judah and to Jerusalem, 'You shall bow down in the {presence} of this altar.'"

8 And now please make a wager with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, [that is,] if you are able {put} riders for yourself on them!

9 But how can you drive back {one governor among the least of my master's servants}, when you trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

10 And now was it without Yahweh that I have come up against this land to destroy it? Yahweh said to me, "Go up against this land and destroy it!" '"

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "give"