2 Chronicles 32:19

And they spake against the God of Jerusalem, as against the gods of the people of the earth, which were the work of the hands of man.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(19) They spake against.—Or, spake of Literally, unto. (Comp. Psalm 2:7; Psalm 3:2.)

People.—Peoples.

The work.—The versions have “works.” Instead of repeating the offers which the Assyrian envoys made to the people of Jerusalem, to induce them to submit, the chronicler dwells on that blasphemy against the God of Israel which was the cause of the Assyrian overthrow.

The work of the hands of man.—A reminiscence of 2Kings 19:18 : “And they put their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of human hands, wood and stone” (part of Hezekiah’s prayer).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

32:1-23 Those who trust God with their safety, must use proper means, else they tempt him. God will provide, but so must we also. Hezekiah gathered his people together, and spake comfortably to them. A believing confidence in God, will raise us above the prevailing fear of man. Let the good subjects and soldiers of Jesus Christ, rest upon his word, and boldly say, Since God is for us, who can be against us? By the favour of God, enemies are lost, and friends gained.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

fathers - i. e. "predecessors." Sennacherib really belonged to a dynasty that had only furnished one king before himself.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

18. they cried with a loud voice … unto the people of Jerusalem … on the wall—It appears that the wall on the west side of the city reached as far to the side of the uppermost pool of Gihon at that time as it does now, if not farther; and the wall was so close to that pool that those sent to negotiate with the Assyrian general answered him in their own tongue (see on [467]2Ki 18:27).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And they spake against the God of Jerusalem,.... The only living and true God, whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem professed to be their God, and who was worshipped by them in the temple there:

as against the gods of the people of the earth, which were the work of the hands of man; they made no difference between the one and the other, but spoke as freely and as contemptibly of the one as of the other, see Isaiah 36:19.

Geneva Study Bible

And they spake against the God of Jerusalem, as against the gods of the people of the earth, which were the {m} work of the hands of man.

(m) Which were invented, made and authorized by man.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

19. against the God of Jerusalem] R.V. of the God of Jerusalem. For this designation cp. Psalm 135:21.

as against the gods of the people] R.V. as of the gods of the peoples.

which were the work of the hands of man] R.V. which are the work of men’s hands. Cp. Psalm 135:15-18.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 19. - As against the gods of the people of the earth, the work of the hands of men. Our compiler, at all events, signalizes the difference, which Sennacherib worse than minimizes, between the God of Israel and the so-called gods of the surrounding heathen nations. 2 Chronicles 32:19

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The description of Sennacherib's all-conquering power: cf. 2 Kings 18:35; Isaiah 36:20, and Isaiah 37:11-13. "Who is there among all the gods of these peoples, whom my fathers utterly destroyed, who could have delivered his people out of my hand, that your God should save you?" The idea is, that since the gods of the other peoples, which were mightier than your God, have not been able to save their peoples, how should your God be in a position to rescue you from my power? This idea is again repeated in 2 Chronicles 32:15, as a foundation for the exhortation not to let themselves be deceived and misled by Hezekiah, and not to believe his words, and that in an assertative form: "for not one god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people, ... much less then (כּי אף) your gods: they will not save you;" and this is done in order to emphasize strongly the blasphemy of the Assyrian generals against the Almighty God of Israel. To communicate more of these blasphemous speeches would in the chronicler's view be useless, and he therefore only remarks, in 2 Chronicles 32:16, "And yet more spake his (Sennacherib's) servants against God Jahve, and against His servant Hezekiah;" and then, in 2 Chronicles 32:17, that Sennacherib also wrote a letter of similar purport, and (2 Chronicles 32:18) that his servants called with a loud voice in the Jews' speech to the people of Jerusalem upon the wall, to throw them into fear and terrify them, that they might take the city. What they called to the people is not stated, but by the infinit. וּלבהלם ליראם it is hinted, and thence we may gather that it was to the same effect as the blasphemous speeches above quoted (יראם, inf. Pi., as in Nehemiah 6:19). - On comparing 2 Kings 18 and 19, it is clear that Sennacherib only sent the letter to Hezekiah after his general Rabshakeh had informed him of the fruitlessness of his efforts to induce the people of Jerusalem to submit by speeches, and the news of the advance of the Cushite king Tirhakah had arrived; while the calling aloud in the Jews' language to the people standing on the wall, on the part of his generals, took place in the first negotiation with the ambassadors of Hezekiah. The author of the Chronicle has arranged his narrative rhetorically, so as to make the various events form a climax: first, the speeches of the servants of Sennacherib; then the king's letter to Hezekiah to induce him and his counsellors to submit; and finally, the attempt to terrify the people in language intelligible to them. The conclusion is the statement, 2 Chronicles 32:19 : "They spake of the God of Jerusalem as of the gods of the peoples of the earth, the work of the hands of man;" cf. 2 Kings 19:18.