2 Kings 19:25

[See comments on 2 Kings 19:1]

Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps.

Hast thou not long since learned that which some of thy philosophers could and did teach thee, that there is a supreme and powerful God, by whose decree and providence all these wars and calamities were sent and ordered, whose mere instrument thou art, so that thou hast no cause for these vain boastings? This work is mine, more than thine. Or, as it is in the margin of our Bibles, Hast thou not heard that (a particle oft understood) I have made (i.e. constituted, or purchased, or adorned, for all these ways is this Hebrew verb used) it (either Jerusalem, which he now threatened; or rather, the Jewish nation, which he endeavoured to root out; the relative pronoun being put without the antecedent, which is to be gathered out of the context; of which I have formerly given instances) long ago, and formed it of ancient times? i.e. didst thou not hear what I did for this people many ages since, that I carried them out of Egypt in spite of Pharaoh and all his host; and through the Red Sea, where I overthrew the Egyptians; and through the vast howling wilderness; and then brought them into this land by a strong hand, by which I destroyed all their enemies, and planted them in their stead? By which thou mayest understand how dear this people are to me, and how easily I could destroy thee before them, if I saw it fit; and that the places which thou hast taken, and the conquest which thou hast made here, are not to be imputed to thy valour or numbers, but unto my providence, who for wise and just reasons have given them up into thy hands, as it here follows. This may seem to be the truest sense, because that barbarous prince and people were much more likely to hear the tidings of what God did for the Israelites in Egypt, and at the Red Sea, and in Canaan, the fame of which was spread in all those parts, than to hear of or be instructed in the doctrine of God’ s particular providence in the government of several nations, and all their counsels and actions of state and war. For though the Assyrian was indeed the rod in God’ s hand, &c., , yet he did not so understand it, nor was God in all his thoughts; but he minded only the enlargement of his own empire by the destruction of other kingdoms, as it there follows, ,13-15.

2 Kings 19:25 Hast thou not heard long ago [how] I have done it, [and] of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities [into] ruinous heaps.Ver. 25. Hast thou not heard?] Here God himself taketh Sennacherib in hand, and schooleth him concerning the divine providence and decree whereby he was now sent against a "hypocritical nation, a people of God’ s wrath, to take the spoil," &c. "Howbeit he meant not so, neither did his heart think so; but it was in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few." That thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities.] This is all done by my determinate counsel, ordering the world’ s disorders to mine own glory, and the good of my people. Tamerlane was wont to say, Ira De; ego sum, et orbis vastitas. Attilas called himself Metum mundi et flagellum Dei. Sennacherib was God’ s scourge, and the sword in his hand.

(25) Hast thou not heard . . .?—Hast thou not heard? In the far past it I made; in the days of yore did I fashion it; now have I brought it to pass. The “it”—the thing long since foreordained by Jehovah—is defined by the words: “that thou shouldest be to lay waste,” &c. (Comp. Isaiah 22:11; Isaiah 46:10-11; Isaiah 10:5-15.)

Verse 25. Hast thou not heard] Here Jehovah speaks, and shows this boasting king that what he had done was done by the Divine appointment, and that of his own counsel and might he could have done nothing. It was because God had appointed them to this civil destruction that he had overcome them; and it was not through his might; for God had made their inhabitants of small power, so that he only got the victory over men whom God had confounded, dismayed, and enervated, 2Kg 19:26.

25. This verse and the three following contain Jehovah’s response to Sennacherib. The boaster is told that in all he has done he has been but God’s instrument, and that the events in which he has played that part had been ordained by the divine counsels long before. Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it] The R.V. puts ‘long ago’ at the end of this clause. The fame of God’s protection and leading of Israel might be expected to have penetrated to other nations. From their history the heathen might have learnt that the people of the world are under the rule of the Lord, and that their destinies are ordered by Him. And of ancient times that I have formed it] R.V. and formed it of ancient times. The LXX. represents the two first clauses of this verse merely by ἔπλασααὐτήν, συνήγαγοναὐτήν. Now have I brought it to pass] It was ordained long ago, and now I have permitted it to become a fact. With the whole of these four verses may be compared the Lord’s address to the Assyrian (Isaiah 10:9-19). There that nation is described as the ‘rod of God’s anger’. It is God that sends him and gives him his charge to take spoil and prey. But hereafter the Lord will punish him also, and the glory of his high looks. For another rendering of this sentence see margin of A.V.

Hast thou not heard long ago ... - Rather, “Hast thou not heard, that from long ago I did this, from ancient times I fashioned it?

25. Hast thou not heard — The question expresses surprise that the king of Assyria should be ignorant of a matter so notorious as that Assyria was to be the instrument divinely chosen to scourge Israel and Judah.