Isaiah 37:33

33 "Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city, shoot an arrow there, come before it with a shield, or cast up a siege ramp against it.

Isaiah 37:33 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 37:33

Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria,
&c.] The issue of his expedition, and the fruitfulness of it; how vain his attempts would be, and how successless in this undertaking:

he shall not come into this city;
shall not enter into it, and take possession of it, though so sure of it; or, "shall not come unto it {w}"; for some think he never was any nearer it than Libnah, from whence he sent his letters to Hezekiah, ( Isaiah 37:8 Isaiah 37:9 ) ,

nor shoot an arrow there;
neither he nor his archers, so as to annoy or kill anyone person in it:

nor come before it with shields;
or, "with a shield"; that is, he himself with one; otherwise his army under Rabshakeh was before it with men armed with shields; or the sense is, he shall not prevent it, or seize upon it, with his shielded men:

nor cast a bank against it;
raise a mount, in order to fix his batteries upon, and play his artillery from, and shoot his arrows in to greater advantage.


FOOTNOTES:

F23 (tazh ryeh la aby al) "non veniet ad civitatem hanc", Oecolampadius, Musculus, Gataker; "ad urbem hanc": Vitringa.

Isaiah 37:33 In-Context

31 The surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward;
32 for from Jerusalem a remnant shall go out, and from Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
33 "Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city, shoot an arrow there, come before it with a shield, or cast up a siege ramp against it.
34 By the way that he came, by the same he shall return; he shall not come into this city, says the Lord.
35 For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David."
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.