Isaiah 37:26

26 "¹Have you not heard? Long ago I did it, From ancient times I ²planned it. Now ³I have brought it to pass, That ⁴you should turn fortified cities into ⁵ruinous heaps.

Isaiah 37:26 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 37:26

Hast thou not heard long ago?
&c.] By report, by reading the history of ancient times, or by means of the prophets; these are the words of the Lord to Sennacherib. The Targum adds,

``what I did to Pharaoh king of Egypt;''

it follows: how I have done it; and of ancient times that I have formed it?
meaning either the decree in his own breast from all eternity, and which he had published by his prophets, of raising up him, this wicked prince, to be the scourge of nations; or by the "it" are meant the people of the Jews, God's Israel, whom he had made, formed into a body politic, and into a church state, and had done great things for, in bringing them out of Egypt, leading them through the Red sea, providing for them, and protecting them in the wilderness, subduing nations under them, and settling them in the land of Canaan; now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste
defenced cities into ruinous heaps
^F20; which some render interrogatively, now should I bring, it to be laid waste, and fenced cities to be
ruinous heaps?
that is, the people of the Jews, the city of Jerusalem, and other fenced cities? no, I will not: or the meaning is, that that decree, which he had framed and formed in his own mind from all eternity, he was now bringing to pass; which was, that this king of Babylon should be a waster and destroyer of fortified cities, which he should reduce to heaps of ruin; wherefore he had no reason to vaunt as he had done, for he was only an instrument of executing the purposes and designs of God, though it was not in his heart, nor did he so mean.

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FOOTNOTES:

F20 (Myun Mylg) "in acervos et flores", "into heaps and flowers", that is, into heaps of dust, which being moved, and raised by the wind, fly away like flowers and blossoms of trees; so Gussetius, "in acervos volantes, aut ad volandum excitatos, scil. dum redacti in pulveres, magna ex parte, volant, excitati a ventis", Comment. Ebr. p. 502.

Isaiah 37:26 In-Context

24 "Through your servants you have reproached the Lord , And you have said, 'With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains, To the remotest parts of Lebanon; And I cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses. And I will go to its highest peak, its thickest forest.

25 'I dug wells and drank waters, And with the sole of my feet I dried up All the rivers of Egypt.'

26 "Have you not heard? Long ago I did it, From ancient times I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, That you should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps.

27 "Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength, They were dismayed and put to shame; They were as the vegetation of the field and as the green herb, As grass on the housetops is scorched before it is grown up.

28 "But I know your sitting down And your going out and your coming in And your raging against Me.

Cross References

• 1. Isaiah 40:21, 28
• 2. Acts 2:23; Acts 4:27, 28; 1 Peter 2:8
• 3. Isaiah 46:11
• 4. Isaiah 10:6
• 5. Isaiah 17:1; Isaiah 25:2