Isaiah 37:23

23 “Whom have you been defying and ridiculing? Against whom did you raise your voice? At whom did you look with such haughty eyes? It was the Holy One of Israel!

Isaiah 37:23 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 37:23

Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed?
&c.] A creature like thyself? no, but a God, and not one like the gods of the nations, the idols of wood and stone, but the living God: and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice?
alluding to Rabshakeh's crying with a loud voice, ( Isaiah 36:13 ) : and lifted up thine eyes on high?
as proud and haughty persons do, disdaining to look upon those they treat with contempt: even against the Holy One of Israel;
that is, Israel's God, and will protect him; "a Holy One", and of purer eyes than to behold with pleasure such a proud blaspheming creature, and cannot look upon him but with indignation; for against such he sets himself; these he resists, pulls down, and destroys.

Isaiah 37:23 In-Context

21 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Because you prayed about King Sennacherib of Assyria,

22 the LORD has spoken this word against him: “The virgin daughter of Zion despises you and laughs at you. The daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head in derision as you flee.

23 “Whom have you been defying and ridiculing? Against whom did you raise your voice? At whom did you look with such haughty eyes? It was the Holy One of Israel!

24 By your messengers you have defied the Lord. You have said, ‘With my many chariots I have conquered the highest mountains— yes, the remotest peaks of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars and its finest cypress trees. I have reached its farthest heights and explored its deepest forests.

25 I have dug wells in many foreign lands and refreshed myself with their water. With the sole of my foot, I stopped up all the rivers of Egypt!’