Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_200_p.lzh/5_210.TXT

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creature, and cannot took upon.him but with indig-
nation; for against such he sets himself; these he
resists, pulls down, and destroys.
Vet. 24. B!! Shy servants hast thou reproached the
Lord, &c.] Particularly by Rabshakeh, and the other
two that were with him, who, no doubt, assented to
what he said; not content to reproach bin1 hitnself, he
set his servants to do it likewise; he made use of them
as instruments, and even set them, as well as himself,
above the Lord:  and hast said, b!! the multitude of my
chariots am I come up to the height of the mbuntains ;
not only with his foot-soldiers, but with his chariots,
and a great number of .them, he had travelled over
hills and mountains, as Hann'ibal over the Alps, and
was now upon the high mountains which were round
about Jerusalem, and very near the mountain of the
Lord, s house; of which Jarchi interprets the words:
to 'the sides of Lebanon; meaning either the mountain
of Lebanon, which was on the borders of the !and of
Israel, famous for cedarsand tir-trees,. after mentioned.;
or, the' temple made of the wood of Lebanon, near
which his army now lay; so the Targum and Jarchi
understand it: and I will cut down the tall cedars there-
of, and the choice fir,trees thereof; to make way for his
army, and to support .himself'with ymaterials for the
siege; to make tents w. ith' for his soldiers to lie in, or
wooden fortresses from whence to armour the city.
The !cedars of Lebanon "were very large and tall.
Mr. Mau:ndrell {p} says he mensured one of the largest,
 and" found it six-and-thirty feetand six inches thick;
"its branches spread a hundred and eleven feet; its
"trunk from the ground was about fifteen or sixteen
:' feet, and then divided into five branches, each of
' which would make a large tree." Monsiem' .Theve-
not .{q} says, now there are no more nor leSs that, twenty
three cedars on Mount Lebanon, great anit small: or
it may be, these metaphorically intend the princes,
and nobles, and chief men of the Jewish nation, he
threatens to destroy; so the Targum," and Iwill .kill
· '. the most beautiful of their mighty ones, and the
"choicest of their .princes :" and I will enter into the
height of his border; some think the tower of Lebanon,
which stood- on the east part of it towards Syria, is
meant; but it seems rather to design Jerusalem, the
metropolis of the nation, which he thought himself
sure of entering into, and taking possession of; and
this was what his heart was set upon; so the Targum,
"and I will subdue the city of their strength ;' their
strong city Jerusalem, 'in which they placed their
strength: and the .forest of his. Carreel : or the forest
and his fruitful field {r}; the. same city, which, for the
number of its houses and inhabitants, was like a forest,
and was Hezekiah's fruitful field, where all his riches
and treasure were. The Targum interprets it of his
army, "and I will consume the m u!titude of their army."
Ver. 25. I have digged, .and drunk water, &c.] In
places where he came, and found no water for his
army, he set his soldiers to work, to dig cisterns, as
the Targum, or wells, so that they had watet sufficient
to drink; in 2 Kings xix. o_4. it is strange waters, which
were never known before: and with the sole of my feet
have I dried up all the rivers 03" the besieged places; or,
as the Targum," with the soles of the feet of the peo-
"ple that are with me ;" the Syriac version, with the
hoofs of my horses: with which he trampled down
hanks of rivers, and pools, and cisterns of water; signi-
fying the vast numbers of his soldiers, who could drink
up a river, or carry it away with them, or -could turn
the streams of rivers that ran by the shies, or round
about, cities besieged, and so hindered the carrying
on of a siege, and the taking of the place; but he had
ways and means very easily to drain them, and ford
them; or to cut off all communicati'on of the water
from the besieged. S'ome render it, I have dried up all
the rivers of Egypt{s}, as Kimchi, on 2 Kings xix.
observes, and to be understood hyperbolically; see
ch. xix. C>. so Ben Melech observes.
Ver. 26. Hast thou not heard long ago ? &c.] By
report, by reading the history of ancient times, or by
means of the prophets; these are the words of the Lord
to Sennacherib. The Targum adds, "what I did to
', Pharaoh king of Egypt;" it follows: how I have
done !t ; and .of ancient times that I have formed it
meaning either .'the decree in his own breast from all
eternity, and which he had published by his prophets,
of raising up him, this wicked prince, to be the scourge
of nations ;. or by the it are meant the people of the
Jews, God's Israel, whom he had made, formed into a
body politic, .and into a church-state, and had done
great things for, in bringing them out of Egypt, lead-
ing them through the Red sea, providing for them,
and protecting them in .the wilderness, subduing na-
tions under them, and settl. ing them in the land of Ca-
naan ; now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest
be to lay waste defenced citios into ruinous heaps{t};
which some render interrogatively, now should I bring,
it to be laid waste, and .fenced cities to be ruinous heaps
that is, the.people of the Jews, the city of Jerusalem,
and other fenced cities ? no, l  will not: or the meaning
is, that that decree, which he had framed and fortned
in his own mind from all eternity, he was now bringing
to pass.; which was, that this king of Babylon should
ben waster and destroyer of fortitled cities, which he
should reduce to. heaps of ruin; wherefore he had no
reason to vaunt as he had done, for he was only an in-
strument of executing the purposes and designs of
God, .though it was. not in his heart, nor did he so
mean.
Ver. 27- Ttterefore their inhabitants were of small
&c.] Or, short of hand{u}; it was not in the
power of their hands to help themselves, because the
Lord took away their strength, having determined that
they should be destroyed for their sins; otherwise it
would not have been in the power of Sennacherib to
have subdued them; this takes off greatly from the
king of Assyria's triumph, that they were a weak peo-

{p} Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 179.
{q} Travels, part 1. B. 2. ch. 60. p. 221.
{r} \^wlmrk rey\^ sylvas, arva ejus, Junius & Tremellius; sylvas & arva
ejus, Piscator.
{s} \^rwum yrway lk\^ omnes rivos AEgypti, Vitringa.
{t} \^Myun Mylg\^ in acervos & flores, into heaps and flowers, that is,
into heaps of dust, which being moved, and raised by the whind, fly
away like flowers and blossoms of trees; so Gussetius, in acervos vo-
lantes, aut ad volandum excitatos, scil. dum redacti in pulveres, magna
ex parte, volant, excitati a ventis, Comment. Ebr. p. 502.
{u} \^dy yruq\^ breviati, vel breves manu, Forerius; abbreviati manu,
Vatablus, Montanus.