Matthew Henry on Isaiah 37:21–end
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. Isaiah sent a long answer to Hezekiah's prayer in God's name, sent it in writing (for it was too long to be sent by word of mouth), and sent it by way of return to his prayer, relation being thereunto had: "Whereas thou hast prayed to me, know, for thy comfort, that thy prayer is heard." Isaiah might have referred him to the prophecies he had delivered (particularly that ch. 10) and bid him pick out an answer from thence; but, that he might have abundant cons…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 37:27
Therefore--not because of thy power, but because I made them unable to withstand thee.
grass--which easily withers (Isa 40:6; Psa 37:2).
on . . . housetops--which having little earth to nourish it fades soonest (Psa 129:6-8).
corn blasted before it be grown up--SMITH translates, "The cornfield (frail and tender), before the corn is grown."
John Gill on Isaiah 37:27
Therefore their inhabitants were of small power,.... Or, "short of hand" (u); it was not in the power of their hands to help themselves, because the Lord took away their strength, having determined that they should be destroyed for their sins; otherwise it would not have been in the power of Sennacherib to have subdued them; this takes off greatly from the king of Assyria's triumph, that they were a weak people, whom he had conquered, and were given up into his hands by the Lord, according to his purposes, or he had never been lord over them:
they were dismayed and confounded; not so much at the sight of Sennacherib's army, but because the Lord had dispirited them, and took away their natur…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Calvin on Isaiah 37:27
For their inhabitants were maimed. [63] Here the Prophet expresses more fully what he had formerly glanced at briefly, that we ought not to judge of the condition of the Church from the stability of this world; for although fortified cities are taken, and the strongest men lose courage and fall into the hands of their enemies, yet the Church shall stand and flourish, because it does not rest on its own strength, and has its foundation not on the earth but in heaven. There is thus an implied contrast between fortified cities, which alarmed and terrorstruck inhabitants are unable to defend, and the Church of God, which rests on his grace alone, and therefore resists every attack, so that it ne…
