Therefore their inhabitants, devoid of power, are dismayed and ashamed. They are like plants in the field, tender green shoots, grass on the rooftops, scorched before it is grown.
27. For their inhabitants were maimed. “Their inhabitants were of small power. Heb., short of hand.” — (Eng. Ver.) “Their inhabitants are short of hand, that is, I have made them weak, they are ashamed and confounded. By these and the following expressions he shews how easily the nations were vanquished by the king of Assyria, when it had been so determined by Jehovah.” — Rosenmuller.
We may here observe, 1. That those who receive messages of terror from men with patience, and send messages of faith to God by prayer, may expect messages of grace and peace from God for their comfort, even when they are most cast down.
Commenting on Isaiah 37:21-38
Because thy rage against me, and thy tumult is come up into mine ears,..... The rage which Sennacherib expressed both by Rabshakeh, and in his letter against Hezekiah and his people, is taken by the Lord as against himself; so great was his care of them, and concern for them; and indeed there was a great deal of blasphemy belched out against himself; and so...