2 Kings 19:25

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., Isaiah 10:5, 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, 2 Kings 19:7,2 Kings 19:13. Now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps: this translation seems better to agree both with the foregoing branch of this verse, and with the following verse, than the other interrogative translation in the margin; and the plain sense seems to be this: Great things I have done for this people, which thou canst not be ignorant of; but now I have changed my course towards them, resolved to punish them severely for their sins; and therefore now I have brought it to pass, i.e. I have so disposed of things by my providence, that thou shouldst be a great and victorious prince, and that thou shouldst employ thy forces against them to do my work upon them, that thou shouldst be (to wit, a person raised up and fitted and strengthened for this very purpose) to lay waste fenced cities (and to turn them) into ruinous heaps, i.e. that thou shouldst be so successful as thou hast hitherto been, first against the kingdom of Israel, and now against Judah.