以赛亚书 37:25

Chinese NCV (Simplified)

我挖井和喝水；我用我的腳掌踏乾埃及的河流。’

Parallel Translations

Chinese Union (Simplified)
我 已 经 挖 井 喝 水 ； 我 必 用 脚 掌 踏 乾 埃 及 的 一 切 河 。

Contextual Overview

²¹ Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah that said, "This is what the Lord , the God of Israel, says: ‘You prayed to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria. ²² So this is what the Lord has said against Sennacherib: The people of Jerusalem hate you and make fun of you; the people of Jerusalem laugh at you as you run away. ²³ You have insulted me and spoken against me; you have raised your voice against me. You have a proud look on your face, which is against me, the Holy One of Israel! ²⁴ You have sent your messengers to insult the Lord. You have said, "With my many chariots I have gone to the tops of the mountains, to the highest mountains of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars and its best pine trees. I have gone to its greatest heights and its best forests. ²⁵ I have dug wells in foreign countries and drunk water there. By the soles of my feet, I have dried up all the rivers of Egypt." ²⁶ "‘King of Assyria, surely you have heard. Long ago I, the Lord , planned these things. Long ago I designed them, and now I have made them happen. I allowed you to turn those strong, walled cities into piles of rocks. ²⁷ The people in those cities were weak; they were frightened and put to shame. They were like grass in the field, like tender, young grass, like grass on the housetop that is burned by the wind before it can grow. ²⁸ "‘I know when you rest, when you come and go, and how you rage against me. ²⁹ Because you rage against me, and because I have heard your proud words, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth. Then I will force you to leave my country the same way you came.' ³⁰ "Then the Lord said, ‘Hezekiah, I will give you this sign: This year you will eat the grain that grows wild, and the second year you will eat what grows wild from that. But in the third year, plant grain and harvest it. Plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

with the sole: Isaiah 36:12, 1 Kings 20:10, 2 Kings 19:23, 2 Kings 19:24

besieged: or, fenced and closed

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 20:1 - horses 2 Chronicles 32:1 - win them Job 28:11 - bindeth Job 40:23 - drinketh Psalms 94:4 - boast Isaiah 19:6 - and the Isaiah 26:6 - General Ezekiel 38:11 - go up Daniel 4:30 - that Nahum 3:14 - Draw

Cross-References

Genesis 31:21
Jacob and his family left quickly, crossed the Euphrates River, and traveled toward the mountains of Gilead.

Genesis 31:23
so he gathered his relatives and began to chase him. After seven days Laban found him in the mountains of Gilead.

Genesis 37:1
Jacob lived in the land of Canaan, where his father had lived.

Genesis 37:4
When Joseph's brothers saw that their father loved him more than he loved them, they hated their brother and could not speak to him politely.

Genesis 37:11
Joseph's brothers were jealous of him, but his father thought about what all these things could mean.

Genesis 37:12
One day Joseph's brothers went to Shechem to graze their father's flocks.

Genesis 37:16
Joseph answered, "I am looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing the flocks?"

Genesis 37:18
Joseph's brothers saw him coming from far away. Before he reached them, they made a plan to kill him.

Genesis 37:28
So when the Midianite traders came by, the brothers took Joseph out of the well and sold him to the Ishmaelites for eight ounces of silver. And the Ishmaelites took him to Egypt.

Genesis 37:36
Meanwhile the Midianites who had bought Joseph had taken him to Egypt. There they sold him to Potiphar, an officer to the king of Egypt and captain of the palace guard.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

I have digged, and drunk water,.... 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 water sufficient to drink; in 2 Kings 19:24, it is "strange waters", which were never known before:

and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of the besieged places; or, as the Targum,

"with the soles of the feet of the people that are with me;''

the Syriac version, "with the hoofs of my horses": with which he trampled down banks of rivers, and pools, and cisterns of water; signifying 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 sides, 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 communication of the water from the besieged. Some render it, "I have dried up all the rivers of Egypt" s, as Kimchi, on 2 Kings 19:24, observes, and to be understood hyperbolically; see Isaiah 19:6, so Ben Melech observes.

s כל יאורי מצור "omnes rivos Aegypti", Vitringa.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I have digged - That is, I have digged wells. This was regarded among eastern nations as an important achievement. It was difficult to find water, even by digging, in sandy deserts; and in a country abounding with rocks, it was an enterprise of great difficulty to sink a well. Hence, the possession of a well became a valuable property, and was sometimes the occasion of contention between neighboring tribes Genesis 26:20. Hence, also to stop up the wells of water, by throwing in rocks or sand, became one of the most obvious ways of distressing an enemy, and was often resorted to Genesis 26:15, Genesis 26:18; 2 Kings 3:19, 2 Kings 3:25. To dig wells, or to furnish water in abundance to a people, became also an achievement which was deemed worthy to be recorded in the history of kings and princes 2 Chronicles 26:10. Many of the most stupendous and costly of the works of the Romans in the capital of their empire, and in the principal towns of their provinces, consisted in building aqueducts to bring water from a distance into a city.

An achievement like this I understand Sennacherib as boasting he had performed; that he had furnished water for the cities and towns of his mighty empire; that he had accomplished what was deemed so difficult, and what required so much expense, as digging wells for his people; and that he had secured them from being stopped up by his enemies, so that he and his people drank of the water in peace. Gesenius, however, understands this as a boast that he had extended the bounds of his empire beyond its original limits, and unto regions that were naturally destitute of water, and where it was necessary to dig wells to supply his armies. Rosenmuller understands it as saying: ‘I have passed over, and taken possession of foreign lands.’ Drusius regards it as a proverbial saying, meaning ‘I have happily and successfully accomplished all that I have undertaken, as he who digs a well accomplishes that which he particularly desires.’ Vitringa regards it as saying, ‘that to dig wells, and to drink the water of them, is to enjoy the fruit of our labors, to be successful and happy.’ But it seems to me that the interpretation above suggested, and which I have not found in any of the commentators before me, is the correct exposition.

And drunk water - In 2 Kings 19:24, it is, ‘I have drunk strange waters;’ that is, the waters of foreign lands. I have conquered them, and have dug wells in them. But the sense is not materially changed.

And with the sole of my feet - Expressions like this, denoting the desolations of a conqueror, are found in the classic writers. Perhaps the idea there is, that their armies were so numerous that they drank up all the waters in their march - a strong hyperbole to denote the number of their armies, and the extent of their desolations when even the waters failed before them. Thus Claudian (De Bello Getico, 526) introduces Alaric as boasting of his conquests in the same extravagant manner, and in language remarkably similar to this:

Cum cesserit omnis

Obsequiis natura meis. Subsidere nostris

Sub pedibus montes; arescere vidimus amnes -

Fregi Alpes, galeisque Padum victricibus hausi.

So Juvenal (Sat. 10:176), speaking of the dominion of Xerxes, says:

- credimus altos

Defecisse amnes, epotaque ilumina Medo

Prandente.

The boast of drying up streams with the sole of the foot, is intended to convey the idea that he had not only supplied water for his own empire by digging wells, but that he had cut off the supplies of water from the others against whom he had made war. The idea perhaps is, that if such an army as his was, should pass through the streams of a country that they should invade, and should only take away the water that would adhere to the sole or the hollow of the foot on their march, it would dry up all the streams. It is strong hyperbolical language, and is designed to indicate the number of the forces which were under his command.

Of the besieged places - Margin, ‘Fenced’ or ‘closed’. The word rendered ‘rivers’ (אורי 'rēy), may denote canals, or artificial streams, such as were common in Egypt. In Isaiah 19:6, it is rendered ‘brooks,’ and is applied to the artificial canals of Egypt (see the note on that place). The word rendered here ‘besieged places’ (מצור mâtsôr), may mean distress, straitness Deuteronomy 28:53; siege Ezekiel 4:2, Ezekiel 4:7; mound, bulwark, intrenchment Deuteronomy 20:20; or it may be a proper name for Egypt, being one of the forms of the name מצרים mits^erayim or Egypt. The same phrase occurs in Isaiah 19:6, where it means Egypt (see the note on that place), and such should be regarded as its meaning here. It alludes to the conquests which Sennacherib is represented as boasting that he had made in Egypt, that he had easily removed obstructions, and destroyed their means of defense. Though he had been repulsed before Pelusium by Tirhakah king of Ethiopia (see the note at Isaiah 36:1), yet it is not improbable that he had taken many towns there, and had subdued no small part of the country to himself. In his vain boasting, he would strive to forget his repulse, and would dwell on the case of conquest, and the facility with which he had removed all obstructions from his way. The whole language of the verse therefore, is that of a proud and haughty Oriental prince, desirous of proclaiming his conquests, and forgetting his mortifying defeats.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 37:25. Water - "Strange waters"] The word זרים zarim, strange, lost out of the Hebrew text in this place, is supplied from the other copy. A MS. supplies the word רבים rabbim, many, instead of it.

With the sole of my feet — With my infantry.

All the rivers of the besieged places - "All the canals of fenced places."] The principal cities of Egypt, the scene of his late exploits, were chiefly defended by deep moats, canals, or large lakes, made by labour and art, with which they were surrounded. See Harmer's Observ. ii. p. 304. Claudian introduces Alaric boasting of his conquests in the same extravagant manner: -

"Subsidere nostris

Sub pedibus montes; arescere vidimus amnes.__

Fregi Alpes, galeisque Padum victricibus hausi."

De Bello Getic. 526.

"The mountains have passed away under our feet; we have seen the rivers dried up. I have broken the Alps, and laden out the Po with our victorious helmets."