Isaiah 37:22

This is the word which the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(22) The virgin, the daughter of Zion.—The same phrase had been used in Isaiah 23:12 of Zidon. There the virgin had been “oppressed,” i.e., “ravished” by the invaders, but Zion was to escape the ravisher, and laugh his lust to scorn.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

37:1-38 This chapter is the same as 2Ki 19

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The virgin, the daughter of Zion - Jerusalem (see the note at Isaiah 1:8; compare the note at Isaiah 23:12). The parallelism in this and the following verses shows that the poetic form of speech is here introduced.

Hast despised thee - That is, it is secure from thy contemplated attack. The idea is, that Jerusalem would exult over the ineffectual attempts of Sennacherib to take it, and over his complete overthrow.

Hath laughed thee to scorn - Will make thee an object of derision.

Hath shaken her head at thee - This is an indication of contempt and scorn (compare Psalm 22:7; Psalm 109:25; Jeremiah 18:16; Zephaniah 2:15; Matthew 27:39).

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

22. Transition to poetry: in parallelism.

virgin … daughter—honorable terms. "Virgin" implies that the city is, as yet, inviolate. "Daughter" is an abstract collective feminine personification of the population, the child of the place denoted (see on [769]Isa 23:10; [770]Isa 1:8). Zion and her inhabitants.

shaken … head—in scorn (Ps 22:7; 109:25; Mt 27:39). With us to shake the head is a sign of denial or displeasure; but gestures have different meanings in different countries (Isa 58:9; Eze 25:6; Zep 2:15).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

This is the word which the Lord hath spoken concerning him,.... The sentence he has pronounced upon him, the punishment he has determined to inflict on him, in answer to Hezekiah's prayer against him:

the virgin, the daughter of Zion; hath despised thee; and laughed thee to scorn; that, is the inhabitants of Zion, particularly of the fort of Zion, called a "virgin", because it had never been forced, or taken and to show that it was a vain thing in Sennacherib to attempt it, as well as it would have been an injurious one, could he have accomplished it; since God, the Father of this virgin, would carefully keep her from such a rape; and he who was her husband to whom she was espoused as a chaste virgin, would defend and protect her; and the whole is designed to show the impotent malice of the king of Assyria; otherwise, at the time when these words were spoken, the daughter of Zion was in a fearful and trembling condition, and not in a laughing frame; but this declares what she might do now, and would do hereafter, for anything that he could do against her. The Targum paraphrases it,

"the kingdom of the congregation of Zion;''

the whole nation. Some restrain this to the inhabitants of the upper part of the city of Jerusalem, as what follows to those of the lower part:

the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee; or "after thee (o)"; by way of scorn and derision; that is when he fled; which shows, that though these things are spoken as if they were past, after the manner of the prophets, yet were to come, and would be when Sennacherib fled, upon the destruction of his army. Of this phrase, as expressive of scorn, see Psalm 22:7. The Targum is, "the people that dwell in Jerusalem", &c.

(o) "post te", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Geneva Study Bible

This is the word which the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The {o} virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised, and derided thee; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.

(o) Whom God had chosen to himself as a chaste virgin, and over whom he had care to preserve her from the lusts of the tyrant, as a father would have over his daughter.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

22–29. The poem on Sennacherib is in substance a Taunt-song; but in form an elegy, written in the measure characteristic of the qînâh. The first two lines (Isaiah 37:22) read:

She hath despised thee, hath mocked thee—the virgin daughter of Zion;

Behind thee hath shaken the head—the daughter of Jerusalem.

The prophet anticipates the ignominious retreat of the Assyrian king (“behind thee”), leaving Jerusalem still a “virgin” fortress. To “shake the head” is in the O.T. a gesture of contempt (Psalm 22:7; Jeremiah 18:16; Lamentations 2:15, &c.).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 22. - The virgin the daughter of Zion; i.e. Jerusalem (comp. Isaiah 1:8; Isaiah 10:32; Isaiah 16:1; Isaiah 52:2; Isaiah 62:11). The expression, "virgin daughter," is used also by Isaiah of Zidon (Isaiah 23:12) and of Babylon (Isaiah 47:1). The personification here is very effective. since it represents Jerusalem as a tender maiden, weak and delicate, yet still bold enough to stand up against Sennacherib and all his host, and bid him defiance. Confident in Jehovah, her Protector, she despises him, and laughs him to scorn; nay, "shakes her head at him," or rather. "after him," pursuing him with scornful gestures as In. retreats before her. (On shaking the head as a gesture of scorn, see Psalm 22:7; Psalm 109:25; Matthew 27:39.) Isaiah 37:22

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The prophet's reply. "And Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hizkiyahu, saying, Thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me concerning Sennacherib the king of Asshur (K. adds, I have heard): this is the utterance which Jehovah utters concerning him." He sent, i.e., sent a message, viz., by one of his disciples (limmūdı̄m, Isaiah 8:16). According to the text of Isaiah, אשׁר would commence the protasis to הדּבר זה (as for that which - this is the utterance); or, as the Vav of the apodosis is wanting, it might introduce relative clauses to what precedes ("I, to whom:" Ges. 123, 1, Anm. 1). But both of these are very doubtful. We cannot dispense with שׁמעתּי (I have heard), which is given by both the lxx and Syr. in the text of Isaiah, as well as that of Kings.

The prophecy of Isaiah which follows here, is in all respects one of the most magnificent that we meet with. It proceeds with strophe-like strides on the cothurnus of the Deborah style: "The virgin daughter of Zion despiseth thee, laugheth thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem shaketh her head after thee. Whom hast thou reviled and blasphemed, and over whom hast thou spoken loftily, that thou hast lifted up thine eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel." The predicate is written at the head, in Isaiah 37:22, in the masculine, i.e., without any precise definition; since בּזה is a verb ל ה, and neither the participle nor the third pers. fem. of בּוּז. Zion is called a virgin, with reference to the shame with which it was threatened though without success (Isaiah 23:12); bethūlath bath are subordinate appositions, instead of co-ordinate. With a contented and heightened self-consciousness, she shakes her head behind him as he retreats with shame, saying by her attitude, as she moves her head backwards and forwards, that it must come to this, and could not be otherwise (Jeremiah 18:16; Lamentations 2:15-16). The question in Isaiah 37:23 reaches as far as עיניך, although, according to the accents, Isaiah 37:23 is an affirmative clause: "and thou turnest thine eyes on high against the Holy One of Israel" (Hitzig, Ewald, Drechsler, and Keil). The question is put for the purpose of saying to Asshur, that He at whom they scoff is the God of Israel, whose pure holiness breaks out into a consuming fire against all by whom it is dishonoured. The fut. cons. ותּשּׂה is essentially the same as in Isaiah 51:12-13, and מרום is the same as in Isaiah 40:26.