Isaiah 37:6

And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say unto your master, Thus saith the LORD, Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(6) The servants of the king of Assyria.—Not the usual word for “servants,” which might include high officers of state, but a less honourable one (na‘arâ), like puer in Latin, or garçon in French. He speaks of Rabshakeh (probably the king’s cup-bearer) as though he were only, after all, a valet.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Wherewith the servants ... - Hebrew, נערי na‛ărēy - The 'youth,' or the young men. The word properly denotes boys, youths, young men; and is used here probably by way of disparagement, in contradistinction from an embassy that would be truly respectable, made up of aged men.

Have blasphemed me - God regarded these words as spoken against himself and he would vindicate his own honor and name.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6. servants—literally, "youths," mere lads, implying disparagement, not an embassy of venerable elders. The Hebrew is different from that for "servants" in Isa 37:5.

blasphemed me—(Isa 36:20).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Isaiah said unto them, thus shall you say unto your master,.... Or, "your lord" (q); King Hezekiah, whose ministers and messengers they were:

thus saith the Lord, be not afraid of the words thou hast heard; be not not terrified by them, they are but words, and no more, and will never become facts:

wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me; by representing him as no better than the gods of the Gentiles, and as unable to deliver out of the hands of the king of Assyria the city of Jerusalem, when he had said he would. The word (r) for "servants" signifies boys, lads, young men; so Rabshakeh and his two companions, Rabsaris and Tartan, are called, by way of contempt, they acting a weak and childish part as well as a wicked one.

(q) "ad dominum vestrum", Montanus. (r) "pueri recens nati, infantes, pueri judicio", Gusset.

Geneva Study Bible

And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say unto your master, Thus saith the LORD, Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

6. the servants] Lit “the youths.” Cf. 1 Kings 20:14.

6, 7. Isaiah’s answer far exceeds the king’s request. He does not need now to pray, for he is already in possession of the Divine message for this crisis.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 6. - The servants of the King of Assyria. Mr. Cheyne translates, "the minions of the King of Assyria," remarking truly that the word used is not the ordinary one for "servants," but "a disparaging expression." Perhaps the best translation would be lackeys. Isaiah 37:6

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Isaiah's reply. "And the servants of king Hizkiyahu came to Isaiah. And Isaiah said to them (אליהם, K. להם), Speak thus to your lord, Thus saith Jehovah, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Asshur have blasphemed me! Behold, I will bring a spirit upon him, and he will hear a hearsay, and return to his land; and I cut him down with the sword in his own land." Luzzatto, without any necessity, takes ויּאמרוּ in Isaiah 37:3 in the modal sense of what they were to do (e dovevano dirgli): they were to say this to him, but he anticipated them at once with the instructions given here. The fact, so far as the style is concerned, is rather this, that Isaiah 37:5, while pointing back, gives the ground for Isaiah 37:6 : "and when they had come to him (saying this), he said to them." נערי we render "servants" (Knappen)

(Note: Knappe is the same word as "Knave;" but we have no word in use now which is an exact equivalent, and knave has entirely lost its original sense of servant. - Tr.)

after Esther 2:2; Esther 6:3, Esther 6:5; it is a more contemptuous expression than עבדי. The rūăch mentioned here as sent by God is a superior force of a spiritual kind, which influences both thought and conduct, as in such other connections as Isaiah 19:14; Isaiah 28:6; Isaiah 29:10 (Psychol. p. 295, Anm.).

The external occasion which determined the return of Sennacherib, as described in Isaiah 37:36-37, was the fearful mortality that had taken place in his army. The shemū‛âh (rumour, hearsay), however, was not the tidings of this catastrophe, but, as the continuation of the account in Isaiah 37:8, Isaiah 37:9, clearly shows, the report of the advance of Tirhakah, which compelled Sennacherib to leave Palestine in consequence of this catastrophe. The prediction of his death is sufficiently special to be regarded by modern commentators, who will admit nothing but the most misty figures as prophecies, as a vaticinium post eventum. At the same time, the prediction of the event which would drive the Assyrian out of the land is intentionally couched in these general terms. The faith of the king, and of the inquirers generally, still needed to be tested and exercised. The time had not yet come for him to be rewarded by a clearer and fuller announcement of the judgment.