Isaiah 36:8

8 Now therefore, I urge you, give a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses--if you are able on your part to put riders 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 are trusting in the staff of this broken reed, Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.

7 But if you say to me, 'We trust in the Lord our God,' is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, 'You shall worship before this altar'?" '

8 Now therefore, I urge you, give a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses--if you are able on your part to put riders on them!

9 How then will you repel one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

10 Have I now come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, 'Go up against this land, and destroy it.' "