Isaiah 37:35

For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(35) For mine own sake . . .—The words set forth, as it were, the two motives of Jehovah’s action: “for His own sake,” as asserting His majesty against the blasphemy of the Assyrians; for “David’s sake,” as mindful of the promise made to him, showing, in the spirit of the second commandment, that the good as well as the evil influences of men survive, and that a later generation may profit by the good that was in its predecessor, as well as suffer for its guilt.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For I will defend this city - Notwithstanding all that Hezekiah had done to put it in a posture of defense (2 Chronicles 32:1, following) still it was Yahweh alone who could preserve it.

For mine own sake - God had been reproached and blasphemed by Sennacherib. As his name and power had been thus blasphemed, he says that he would vindicate himself, and for the honor of his own insulted majesty would save the city.

And for my servant David's sake - On account of the promise which he had made to him that there should not fail a man to sit on his throne, and that the city and nation should not be destroyed until the Messiah should appear (see Psalm 132:10-18).

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

35. I will defend—Notwithstanding Hezekiah's measures of defense (2Ch 32:3-5), Jehovah was its true defender.

mine own sake—since Jehovah's name was blasphemed by Sennacherib (Isa 37:23).

David's sake—on account of His promise to David (Ps 132:17, 18), and to Messiah, the heir of David's throne (Isa 9:7; 11:1).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For I will defend this city to save it,.... Or, "shield it"; and if God will be the shield and protection of any place or people, they must needs be safe; who can hurt them?

For my own sake, and for my servant David's sake; not for the merits of the inhabitants of it, but for the sake of his own name and glory, who had been blasphemed by the Assyrian monarch, and his general; and for the sake of his servant David, in whose seed he had promised the kingdom should be established; see 2 Samuel 7:12 and chiefly for the sake of the Messiah, David's son, and the Lord's servant, who was to spring from Hezekiah's race, and therefore must not be cut off.

Geneva Study Bible

For I will defend this city to save it for my own sake, and for my servant {b} David's sake.

(b) For my promise sake made to David.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

35. I will defend this city] Cf. ch. Isaiah 31:5, where the same verb is used.

for my servant David’s sake] An expression of frequent occurrence in the books of Kings. See 1 Kings 11:13; 1 Kings 11:34; 1 Kings 15:4; 2 Kings 8:19.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 35. - I will defend this city... for mine own sake; literally, I will cover over this city, as a bird covers its young with its wings (comp. Isaiah 31:5; Matthew 23:37). God would do this "for his own sake;" i.e. because his own honour was concerned in the defence of his people. He would also do it for his servant David's sake; i.e. because of the promises made to David, that his children should sit upon his throne (2 Samuel 7:16; Psalm 89:29-37; Psalm 132:11-14, etc.), which involved the continued independence of Judaea and Jerusalem. Isaiah 37:35

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The prophecy concerning the protection of Jerusalem becomes more definite in the last turn than it ever has been before. "Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning the king of Asshur, He will not enter into this city, nor shoot off an arrow there; nor do they assault it with a shield, nor cast up earthworks against it. By the way by which he came (K. will come) will he return; and he will not enter into this city, saith Jehovah. And I shield this city (על, K. אל), to help it, for mine own sake, and for the sake of David my servant." According to Hitzig, this conclusion belongs to the later reporter, on account of its "suspiciously definite character." Knobel, on the other hand, sees no reason for disputing the authorship of Isaiah, inasmuch as in all probability the pestilence had already set in (Isaiah 33:24), and threatened to cripple the Assyrian army very considerably, so that the prophet began to hope that Sennacherib might now be unable to stand against the powerful Ethiopian king. To us, however, the words "Thus saith Jehovah" are something more than a flower of speech; and we hear the language of a man exalted above the standard of the natural man, and one how has been taken, as Amos says (Amos 3:7), by God, the moulder of history into "His secret." Here also we see the prophecy at its height, towards which it has been ascending from Isaiah 6:13 and Isaiah 10:33-34 onwards, through the midst of obstacles accumulated by the moral condition of the nation, but with the same goal invariably in view. The Assyrian will not storm Jerusalem; there will not even be preparations for a siege. The verb qiddēm is construed with a double accusative, as in Psalm 21:4 : sōlelâh refers to the earthworks thrown up for besieging purposes, as in Jeremiah 32:24. The reading יבא instead of בּא has arisen in consequence of the eye having wandered to the following יבא. The promise in Isaiah 37:35 sounds like Isaiah 31:5. The reading אל for על is incorrect. One motive assigned ("for my servant David's sake") is the same as in 1 Kings 15:4, etc.; and the other ("for mine own sake") the same as in Isaiah 43:25; Isaiah 48:11 (compare, however, Isaiah 55:3 also). On the one hand, it is in accordance with the honour and faithfulness of Jehovah, that Jerusalem is delivered; and, on the other hand, it is the worth of David, or, what is the same thing, the love of Jehovah turned towards him, of which Jerusalem reaps the advantage.