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The tall cedar trees - the choice fir trees - Probably meaning the princes and nobles of the country.

The forest of his Carmel - Better in the margin: the forest and his fruitful field.

And hast said - Isaiah clothes in words the thoughts of Sennacherib‘s heart - thoughts of the most extreme self-confidence. Compare Isaiah 10:7-14, where, probably at an earlier date, the same overweening pride is ascribed to this king.

With the multitude of my chariots - There are two readings here, which give, however, nearly the same sense. The more difficult and more poetical of the two is to be preferred. Literally, translated it runs - “With chariots upon chariots am I come up, etc.”

To the sides of Lebanon - , “Lebanon,” with its “cedars” and its “fir-trees,” is to be understood here both literally and figuratively. Literally, the hewing of timber in Lebanon was an ordinary feature of an Assyrian expedition into Syria. Figuratively, the mountain represents all the more inaccessible parts of Palestine, and the destruction of its firs and cedars denotes the complete devastation of the entire country from one end to the other.

The lodgings of his borders - literally, “the lodge of its (Lebanon‘s) end;” either an actual habitation situated on the highest point of the mountain-range, or a poetical periphrasis for the highest point itself.

The forest of his Carmel - Or, “the forest of its garden” - i. e., “its forest which is like a garden,” etc.

All Sennacherib's motions were under the Divine cognizance. God himself undertakes to defend the city; and that person, that place, cannot but be safe, which he undertakes to protect. The invasion of the Assyrians probably had prevented the land from being sown that year. The next is supposed to have been the sabbatical year, but the Lord engaged that the produce of the land should be sufficient for their support during those two years. As the performance of this promise was to be after the destruction of Sennacherib's army, it was a sign to Hezekiah's faith, assuring him of that present deliverance, as an earnest of the Lord's future care of the kingdom of Judah. This the Lord would perform, not for their righteousness, but his own glory. May our hearts be as good ground, that his word may strike root therein, and bring forth fruit in our lives.

“Why hast Thou then broken down her hedges,
So that all they which pass by the way do pluck her?
The boar out of the wood doth waste it,
And the wild beast of the field doth devour it.
Return, we beseech Thee, O God of hosts:
Look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine;
And the vineyard which Thy right hand hath planted,
And the branch that Thou madest strong for Thyself.... PK 359.1

“Quicken us, and we will call upon Thy name.
Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts,
Cause Thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.” Psalm 80. PK 359.2

Hezekiah's pleadings in behalf of Judah and of the honor of their Supreme Ruler were in harmony with the mind of God. Solomon, in his benediction at the dedication of the temple, had prayed the Lord to maintain “the cause of His people Israel at all times, as the matter shall require: that all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God, and that there is none else.” 1 Kings 8:59, 60. Especially was the Lord to show favor when, in times of war or of oppression by an army, the chief men of Israel should enter the house of prayer and plead for deliverance. Verses 33, 34. PK 359.3

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