Isaiah 36:10

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹In the fourteenth year of the reign of Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked and captured all the fortified cities of Judah. ²And the king of Assyria sent the Rab-shakeh, with a great army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And he stopped by the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the road to the Launderer's Field. ³Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder, went out to him. ⁴The Rab-shakeh said to them, "Tell Hezekiah that this is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: 'What is the basis of this confidence of yours? ⁵You claim to have a strategy and strength for war, but these are empty words. On whom are you now relying, that you have rebelled against me? ⁶Look now, you are trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. ⁷But if you say to me, "We trust in the LORD our God," is He not the One whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, "You must worship before this altar"? ⁸Now therefore, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria. I will give you two thousand horses-if you can put riders on them! ⁹For how can you repel a single officer among the weakest of my master's servants when you depend on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? ¹⁰So now, was it apart from the LORD that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The LORD Himself said to me, 'Go up against this land and destroy it.'"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Isaiah 10:5-7, Isaiah 37:28, 1 Kings 13:18, 2 Kings 18:25, 2 Chronicles 35:21, Amos 3:6

Reciprocal: Genesis 19:13 - Lord hath Isaiah 36:18 - lest Isaiah 37:29 - rage

Cross-References

Genesis 36:3
and Basemath daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth.

Genesis 36:4
And Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau, Basemath gave birth to Reuel,

Genesis 36:35
When Husham died, Hadad son of Bedad, who defeated Midian in the field of Moab, reigned in his place. And the name of his city was Avith.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And am I now come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it?.... He would insinuate that he had a commission from the Lord God, and that it was by his will and order that he came up to destroy the land; which he said to intimidate Hezekiah and his subjects, as knowing that nothing was more likely to do it than that so far it was true, that he did not come up without the knowledge of the Lord, nor without his will to chastise, but not to destroy, as the event showed:

the Lord said unto me: by the impulse of his Spirit, or by one of his prophets, as he would suggest:

go up against this land, and destroy it; which was a lie of his own making; he knew that the Lord had said no such thing to him, nor had sent him on such an errand; unless he concluded it from his success in taking the fenced cities of Judah, and from Samaria, and the ten tribes, being delivered up in time past into the hands of the king of Assyria, and so was confident this would be the fate of Judah and Jerusalem.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And am I now come up without the Lord - Am I come up without his permission or command? Rabshakeh here speaks in the name of his master; and he means to say that he had the express command of Yahweh to inflict punishment on the Jews. It is possible that there had been conveyed to Sennacherib a rumour of what Isaiah had said (see Isaiah 10:5-6) that God would bring the Assyrians upon the Jewish people to punish them for their sins, and that Rabshakeh now pleads that as his authority, in order to show them that resistance would be vain. Or it may be that he uses the name Yahweh here as synonymous with the name of God, and means to say that he had been divinely directed to come up in that expedition. All the ancient warriors usually consulted the gods, and endeavored by auguries to obtain the divine approbation of their plans of conquest, and Rabshakeh may mean simply to say that his master came now under the divine sanction and direction. Or, which is more probable, he made use of this as a mere pretence for the purpose of influencing the people who heard him, and to whom he said he was sent Isaiah 36:12, in order to alienate their minds from Hezekiah, and to induce them to surrender. He knew that it was one of the principles of the Jews, however little they regarded it in practice, to yield to his authority. Wicked people will be glad to plead divine authority for their purposes and plans when they can have the slightest pretence for it.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 36:10. Am I now come up without the Lord — Probably some apostate Israelitish priest might have encouraged the king of Assyria by telling him that JEHOVAH had given him a commission against Jerusalem.