Isaiah 37:16 - Exposition

O Lord … that dwellest between the cherubims ; literally, that sittest upon the cherubim. The allusion is scarcely to the poetic imagery of God riding on the cherubim in the heavens ( Psalms 18:10 ), as Mr. Cheyne suggests; but rather to his dwelling between the two cherubic forms in the holy of holies, and there manifesting himself (camp. Numbers 7:89 ; 1 Samuel 4:4 ; 2 Samuel 6:2 ; 1 Chronicles 13:6 ; Psalms 80:1 ; Psalms 99:1 ). Thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth . It has been questioned whether Hezekiah was really as pronounced a monotheist as these expressions would imply, and suggested that his actual words received "a colouring" from a later writer. Hezekiah's contemporaries, it is said, Isaiah and Micah, make no such strong statements of their belief in one only God as this (Kuenen, Cheyne). But it is difficult to see what can be a clearer revelation of monotheism than Isaiah 6:1-5 , or what truth more absolutely underlies the whole of Isaiah's teaching than the unity of the Supreme Being. The same under-current is observable in Micah ( Micah 1:2 , Micah 1:3 ; Micah 4:5 ; Micah 6:6-9 ; Micah 7:17 , Micah 7:18 ). Sennacherib's belief, that each country has its own god ( Isaiah 36:18-20 ), is not shared by the religious Jews of his time. They are well aware that the heathen gods are "vanity" ( Isaiah 46:3 ; Hosea 4:15 ; Amos 1:5 ; Jonah 2:8 ), "wind" and "confusion" ( Isaiah 41:29 , etc.). Thou hast made heaven and earth (comp. Genesis 1:1 ; Psalms 102:25 ; Isaiah 40:26-28 ; Isaiah 42:5 , etc.).