Isaiah 37:19

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

⁸When the Rab-shakeh heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah. ⁹Now Sennacherib had been warned about Tirhakah king of Cush: "He has set out to fight against you." On hearing this, Sennacherib sent messengers to Hezekiah with the order: ¹⁰"Tell Hezekiah king of Judah, 'Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. ¹¹Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other countries, devoting them to destruction. Will you then be spared? ¹²Did the gods of the nations my fathers destroyed rescue them-the gods of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and of the people of Eden in Telassar? ¹³Where are the kings of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?'" ¹⁴So Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers, read it, and went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. ¹⁵And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD: ¹⁶"O LORD of Hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth. ¹⁷Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see. Listen to all the words that Sennacherib has sent to defy the living God.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

And have: Isaiah 10:9-11, Isaiah 36:18-20, Isaiah 46:1, Isaiah 46:2, Exodus 32:20, 2 Samuel 5:21

cast: Heb. given

no gods: Isaiah 40:19-21, Isaiah 41:7, Isaiah 44:9, Isaiah 44:10, Isaiah 44:17, Psalms 115:4-8, Jeremiah 10:3-6, Jeremiah 10:11, Hosea 8:6

Reciprocal: Genesis 31:30 - my gods 2 Kings 1:2 - god 2 Kings 18:34 - the gods 2 Kings 19:18 - for they were 2 Chronicles 32:19 - the work Psalms 97:7 - Confounded Psalms 135:15 - idols Isaiah 2:8 - worship Isaiah 36:20 - that the Lord Isaiah 37:11 - General Jeremiah 1:16 - worshipped Jeremiah 2:11 - no gods Jeremiah 16:20 - General Jeremiah 50:2 - her idols Ezekiel 20:32 - to serve Daniel 5:23 - which Daniel 11:8 - their gods

Cross-References

Genesis 28:12
And Jacob had a dream about a ladder that rested on the earth with its top reaching up to heaven, and God's angels were going up and down the ladder.

Genesis 37:5
Then Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more.

Genesis 37:11
And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept in mind what he had said.

Genesis 49:23
The archers attacked him with bitterness, and aimed in hostility.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And, have cast their gods into the fire..... And burnt them; and it may well be asked, where are they? Isaiah 36:19:

for they were no gods, but the works of men's hands, wood and stone; they were made of wood or of stone, and therefore could not be called gods; nor could they save the nations that worshipped them, nor themselves, from the fire:

therefore they have destroyed them; the Assyrian kings were able to do it, and did do it, because they were idols of wood or stone; but it did not therefore follow, that they were a match for the God of Israel, the true, and living God.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And have cast their gods into the fire - This appears to have been the usual policy of the Assyrians and Babylonians. It was contrary to the policy which the Romans afterward pursued, for they admitted the gods of other nations among their own, and even allowed them to have a place in the Pantheon. Their design seems not to have been to alienate the feelings of the vanquished, but to make them feel that they were a part of the same people. They supposed that a vanquished people would be conciliated with the idea that their gods were admitted to participate in the honors of those which were worshipped by the conquerors of the world. But the policy of the Eastern conquerors was different. They began usually by removing the people themselves whom they had subdued, to another land (see the note at Isaiah 36:17). They thus intended to alienate their minds as much as possible from their own country. They laid everything waste by fire and sword, and thus destroyed their homes, and all the objects of their attachment. They destroyed their temples, their groves, and their household gods. They well knew that the civil policy of the nation was founded in religion, and that, to subdue them effectually, it was necessary to abolish their religion. Which was the wisest policy, may indeed admit of question. Perhaps in each case the policy was well adapted to the particular end which was had in view.

For they were no gods - They were not truly gods, and therefore they had no power of resistance, and it was easy to destroy them.