The Geneva Bible Translation Notes, [1599], at sacred-texts.com
4 Kings (2 Kings) Chapter 19
And he sent Eliakim, which [was] over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, (a) to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.
(a) To hear some new prophecy and to have comfort from him.
And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day [is] a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy: for the children are come to (b) the birth, and [there is] not strength to bring forth.
(b) The dangers are so great, that we can neither avenge this blasphemy, or help ourselves any more than a woman in labour.
It may be the LORD thy God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God; and will reprove the words which the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up [thy] prayer for the (c) remnant that are left.
(c) Meaning, for Jerusalem which only remained of all the cities of Judah.
Behold, I will send a blast (d) upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
(d) The Lord can with one blast blow away all the strength of man, and turn it into dust.
And when (e) he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, (f) Behold, he is come out to fight against thee: he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah, saying,
(e) That is, Sennacherib.
(f) For the kings of Ethiopia and Egypt joined together against the king of Assyria because of his oppression of other countries.
Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy (g) God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
(g) The closer the wicked are to their destruction, the more they blaspheme.
And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the LORD, and spread it before the (h) LORD.
(h) Before the Ark of the covenant.
And Hezekiah (i) prayed before the LORD, and said, O LORD God of Israel, which dwellest [between] the cherubims, thou art the God, [even] thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth.
(i) He shows what the true refuge and help is in all dangers, that is, to flee to the Lord by earnest prayer.
LORD, (k) bow down thine ear, and hear: open, LORD, thine eyes, and see: and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the (l) living God.
(k) Show by effect that you will not allow your Name to be blasphemed.
(l) By this title he discerns God from all idols and false gods.
Now therefore, O LORD our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the (m) kingdoms of the earth may know that thou [art] the LORD God, [even] thou only.
(m) He shows the reason the faithful desire God to deliver them: that is, that he may be glorified by their deliverance.
This [is] the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The (n) virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, [and] laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.
(n) Because as yet Jerusalem had not been taken by the enemy therefore he calls her virgin.
Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted [thy] voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? [even] (o) against the Holy [One] of Israel.
(o) God counts that as an injury done to him, and will avenge what is done to any of his saints.
By thy messengers thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down the tall cedar trees thereof, [and] the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the (p) lodgings of his borders, [and into] the forest of his Carmel.
(p) Meaning Jerusalem, which Isaiah calls the height of his borders, that is, of Judah, (Isa 37:24).
Hast thou not heard long ago [how] I have done it, [and] of ancient times that I have formed it? (q) now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities [into] ruinous heaps.
(q) He declares that as he is the author and beginning of his Church, he will never allow it to be completely destroyed, as other cities and kingdoms.
Therefore their (r) inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were [as] the grass of the field, and [as] the green herb, [as] the grass on the housetops, and [as corn] blasted before it be grown up.
(r) Thus he describes the wicked, who flourish for a time, and later fade and decay like flowers.
Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my (s) hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.
(s) I will bridle your rage, and turn you to and fro as it pleases me.
And this [shall be] a (t) sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same; and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof.
(t) God not only promised him the victory, but gives him a sign to confirm his faith.
And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take (u) root downward, and bear fruit upward.
(u) The Lord will multiply in great number that small remnant of Judah that escaped.
For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the (x) zeal of the LORD [of hosts] shall do this.
(x) The love, that God has for his Church will overcome the counsels and enterprises of men.
And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons (y) smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.
(y) This was the just judgment of God for his blasphemy, that he would be slain before the idol that he preferred to the living God, and by those who should by nature have needed his defence.