--- title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah" author: "Adam Clarke" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 392 of 914 url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/392/ cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah, section 392. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/392/" --- # Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah *Adam Clarke* Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 1 of 2. ## 392. 2 Kings · 23 of 30 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/392/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/392/#p-N ### Verse 3 [¶1] The children are come to the birth - The Jewish state is here represented under the emblem of a woman in travail, who has been so long in the pangs of parturition, that her strength is now entirely exhausted, and her deliverance is hopeless, without a miracle. The image is very fine and highly appropriate. [¶2] A similar image is employed by Homer, when he represents the agonies which Agamemnon suffers from his wound: - Οφρα οἱ αἱμ' ετι θερμον ανηνοθεν εξ ωτειλης· Λυταρ επει το μεν ἑλκος ετερσετο παυσατο δ' αἱμα, Οξειαι οδυναι δυνον μενος Ατρειδαο· Ως δ' ὁταν ωδινουσαν εχῃ βελος οξυ γυναικα, Δριμυ, το τε προΐεισι μογοστοκοι Ειλειθυιαι Ἡρης θυγατερες πικ ρας ωδινας εχουσαι· Ὡς οξει' οδυναι δυνον μενος Ατρειδαο. [¶3] Il. xi., ver. 266. [¶4] This, while yet warm, distill'd the purple flood; [¶5] But when the wound grew stiff with clotted blood, [¶6] Then grinding tortures his strong bosom rend. [¶7] Less keen those darts the fierce Ilythiae send, [¶8] The powers that cause the teeming matron's throes, [¶9] Sad mothers of unutterable woes. [¶10] Pope [¶11] Better translated by Macpherson; but in neither well: "So long as from the gaping wound gushed forth, in its warmth, the blood; but when the wound became dry, when ceased the blood to flow amain, sharp pains pervade the strength of Atrides. Racking pangs glide through his frame; as when the Ilythiae, who preside over births, the daughters of white armed Juno, fierce dealers of bitter pains, throw all their darts on hapless women, that travail with child. Such pains pervade the strength of Atrides." ### Verse 4 [¶13] The remnant that are left - That is, the Jews; the ten tribes having been already carried away captive by the kings of Assyria. ### Verse 7 [¶15] Behold, I will send a blast - and he shall hear a rumor - The rumor was, that Tirhakah had invaded Assyria. The blast was that which slew one hundred and eighty-five thousand of them in one night, see [2Kgs 19:35]. [¶16] Cause him to fall by the sword - Alluding to his death by the hands of his two sons, at Nineveh. See [2Kgs 19:35-37]. ### Verse 8 [¶18] Libnah - Lachish - These two places were not very distant from each other; they were in the mountains of Judah, southward of Jerusalem. ### Verse 10 [¶20] Let not thy God in whom thou trustest - This letter is nearly the same with the speech delivered by Rab-shakeh. See [2Kgs 18:29]. ### Verse 14 [¶22] Spread it before the Lord - The temple was considered to be God's dwelling-place; and that whatever was there was peculiarly under his eye. Hezekiah spread the letter before the Lord, as he wished him to read the blasphemies spoken against himself. ### Verse 15 [¶24] Thou art the God, etc. - Thou art not only God of Israel, but God also of Assyria, and of all the nations of the world. ### Verse 21 [¶26] The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee - "So truly contemptible is thy power, and empty thy boasts, that even the young women of Jerusalem, under the guidance of Jehovah, shall be amply sufficient to discomfit all thy forces, and cause thee to return with shame to thy own country, where the most disgraceful death awaits thee." When Bishop Warburton had published his Doctrine of Grace, and chose to fall foul on some of the most religious people of the land, a young woman of the city of Gloucester exposed his graceless system in a pamphlet, to which she affixed the above words as a motto! ### Verse 23 [¶28] The tall cedar trees - the choice fir trees - Probably meaning the princes and nobles of the country. [¶29] The forest of his Carmel - Better in the margin: the forest and his fruitful field. ### Verse 24 [¶31] I have dipped and drunk strange waters - I have conquered strange countries, in which I have digged wells for my army; or, I have gained the wealth of strange countries. [¶32] With the sole of my feet - My infantry have been so numerous that they alone have been sufficient to drink up the rivers of the places I have besieged. ### Verse 25 [¶34] 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, [2Kgs 19:26]. ### Verse 28 [¶36] I will put my hook in thy nose - This seems to be an allusion to the method of guiding a buffalo; he has a sort of ring put into his nose, to which a cord or bridle is attached, by which he can be turned to the right, or to the left, or round about, according to the pleasure of his driver. ### Verse 29 [¶38] This shall be a sign unto thee - To Hezekiah; for to him this part of the address is made. [¶39] Ye shall eat this year - Sennacherib had ravaged the country, and seed-time was now over, yet God shows them that he would so bless the land, that what should grow of itself that year, would be quite sufficient to supply the inhabitants and prevent all famine; and though the second year was the sabbatical rest or jubilee for the land, in which it was unlawful to plough or sow; yet even then the land, by an especial blessing of God, should bring forth a sufficiency for its inhabitants; and in the third year they should sow and plant, etc. and have abundance, etc. Now this was to be a sign to Hezekiah, that his deliverance had not been effected by natural or casual means; for as without a miracle the ravaged and uncultivated land could not yield food for its inhabitants, so not without miraculous interference could the Assyrian army be cut off and Israel saved. ### Verse 30 [¶41] The remnant - shall yet again take root - As your corn shall take root in the soil, and bring forth and abundantly multiply itself, so shall the Jewish people; the population shall be greatly increased, and the desolations occasioned by the sword soon be forgotten. ### Verse 31 [¶43] Out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant - The Jews shall be so multiplied as not only to fill Jerusalem, but all the adjacent country. [¶44] And they that escape out of Mount Zion - Some think that this refers to the going forth of the apostles to the Gentile world, and converting the nations by the preaching of the Gospel.