After the challenge, to observe the blasphemies of Sennacherib, Hezekiah mentions the fact that the Assyrians have really devastated all lands, and therefore that it is not without ground that they boast of their mighty power; but he finds the explanation of this in the impotence and nothingness of the gods of the heathen. אמנם, truly, indeed - the kings of Asshur have devastated the nations and their land. Instead of this we find in Isaiah: "they have devastated all lands and their (own) land" - which is evidently the more difficult and also the more original reading, and has been altered in our account, because the thought that the Assyrians had devastated their own land by making war upon other lands, that is to say, had depopulated it and thereby laid it waste, was not easy to understand. "And have cast their gods into the fire, for they are not gods, but works of human hands, wood and stone, and have thus destroyed them." Hezekiah does not mention this as a sign of the recklessness of the Assyrians (Knobel), but, because Sennacherib had boasted that the gods of no nation had been able to resist him (vv. 12, 13), to put this fact in the right light, and attach thereto the prayer that Jehovah, by granting deliverance, would make known to all the kingdoms of the earth that He alone was God. Instead of ונתנוּ we have in Isaiah ונתון, the inf. absol.; in this connection the more difficult and more genuine reading. This also applies to the omission of אלהים (2 Kings 19:19) in Isaiah 37:20, since the use of Jehovah as a predicate, "that Thou alone art Jehovah," is very rare, and has therefore been misunderstood even by Gesenius. By the introduction of Elohim, the thought "that Thou Jehovah art God alone" is simplified.

2 Kings 19:25 Parallel Commentaries

Hast thou not, etc. or, Hast thou not heard how I have made it long ago, and formed it of ancient times? Should I now bring it to be laid waste, and fenced cities to be ruinous heaps? I have done it.

Psalm 33:11 The counsel of the LORD stands for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.

Psalm 76:10 Surely the wrath of man shall praise you: the remainder of wrath shall you restrain.

Isaiah 10:5,6,15 O Assyrian, the rod of my anger, and the staff in their hand is my indignation...

Isaiah 37:26,27 Have you 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...

Isaiah 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Isaiah 46:10,11 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand...

Isaiah 54:16 Behold, I have created the smith that blows the coals in the fire, and that brings forth an instrument for his work...

Acts 4:27,28 For of a truth against your holy child Jesus, whom you have anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles...