been choked with rubbish, and the cisterns that had been covered up before the approaching enemy” (Thenius), but the digging of wells in the waterless desert. זרים מים, strange water, is not merely water belonging to others, but water not belonging to this soil (Drechsler), i.e., water supplied by a region which had none at other times. By the perfects the thing is represented as already done, as exposed to no doubt whatever; we must bear in mind, however, that the desert of et Tih is not expressly named, but the expression is couched in such general terms, that we may also assume that it includes what the Assyrian had really effected in his expeditions through similar regions. The drying up of the rivers with the soles of the feet is a hyperbolical expression denoting the omnipotence with which the Assyrian rules over the earth. Just as he digs water in the desert where no water is to be had, so does he annihilate it where mighty rivers exist.[1]
Verses 25-34
To this foolish boasting the prophet opposes the divine purpose which had been formed long ago, and according to which the Assyrian, without knowing it or being willing to acknowledge it, had acted simply as the instrument of the Lord, who had given him the power to destroy, but who would soon restrain his ranting against Him, the true God.
Verse 25
2Ki 19:25 “Hast thou not heard? Long ago have I done this, from the days of olden time have I formed it! Now have I brought it to pass, that fortified cities should be to be destroyed into waste heaps.” 2Ki 19:26. “And their inhabitants, short of hand, were dismayed and put to shame; they were herb of the field and green of the turf, grass of the roofs and blighted corn before the stalk.” 2Ki 19:27. “And thy sitting and thy going out and thy coming I know, and thy raging against me.” 2Ki 19:28. “Because of thy raging against me and thy safety, which rise up into my ears, I put my ring into thy
- ↑ Compare the similar boasting of Alarich, already quoted by earlier commentators, in Claudian, de bello Geth. v. 526ff.: cum cesserit omnis Obsequiis natura meis? subsidere nostris Sub pedibus montes, arescere vidimus amnes. v. 532. Fregi Alpes. galeis Padum victricibus hausi.) יאורי are the arms and canals of the Yeor, i.e., of the Nile. מצור, a rhetorical epithet for Egypt, used not only here, but also in Isa 19:6 and Mic 7:12.
