Isaiah 37:27 - Exposition

Therefore . The original is not so emphatic, but still contains the idea, not merely of sequence, but of consequence. God, having decreed the successes of the Assyrians, effected them (in part) by infusing weakness into the nations that were their adversaries. They were as the grass of the field (comp. Isaiah 40:6 , Isaiah 40:7 ). The comparison is one constantly used by the Hebrew psalmists ( Psalms 37:2 ; Psalms 90:5 ; Psalms 92:7 ; Psalms 103:15 ), and was not unknown to the Assyrians. The delicate grass of spring in the East withers within a few weeks, and the fresh and tender herbage becomes yellow, parched, and sapless. The grass that springs upon the earthen roofs of houses fails even more rapidly (comp. Psalms 129:6 ). As corn blasted before it be grown up ; literally, like a field before the stalk. Our translators seem to have rightly preferred the reading of 2 Kings 19:26 ( sh'dephah , equivalent to "blasting") to that of Isaiah ( sh'demah , equivalent to "field") in this place. Their rendering brings out the true sense.