2 Chronicles 32:17

He wrote also letters to rail on. — And letters wrote he to reproach (Isaiah 37:23). Sennacherib wrote to Hezekiah demanding submission, after the failure of the mission of the Tartan and his companions (2 Kings 19:8). If, therefore, the chronicler had been careful about the strictly chronological sequence of events, this verse would have followed rather than preceded 18, 19. As it is, the remark is thrown in here as a parenthesis, in the middle of the account of the behaviour of the Assyrian envoys. Something must be allowed for the necessities of abbreviation, which the author has studied in the entire narrative.

As the gods... have not delivered. — Literally, Like the gods of the nations of the countries, which have not delivered. (Comp. 2 Kings 19:10; 2 Kings 19:12 : “Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee,” &c.) “Have the gods of the nations delivered them,” &c.