18:13 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, King Sennacherib of Assyria marched up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.
“It will not take place;
it will not happen.
7:8 For Syria’s leader is Damascus,
and the leader of Damascus is Rezin.
Within sixty-five years Ephraim will no longer exist as a nation. 18
10:5 Assyria, the club I use to vent my anger, is as good as dead, 19
a cudgel with which I angrily punish. 20
10:6 I sent him 21 against a godless 22 nation,
I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry, 23
to take plunder and to carry away loot,
to trample them down 24 like dirt in the streets.
10:11 As I have done to Samaria and its idols,
so I will do to Jerusalem and its idols.” 25
10:12 But when 26 the sovereign master 27 finishes judging 28 Mount Zion and Jerusalem, then I 29 will punish the king of Assyria for what he has proudly planned and for the arrogant attitude he displays. 30
1 sn Pul was a nickname of Tiglath-pileser III (cf. 15:29). See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 171-72.
2 tn Heb “gave.”
3 tn Heb “Pul.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
4 tn The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 75,000 pounds of silver (cf. NCV “about seventy-four thousand pounds”); NLT “thirty-seven tons”; CEV “over thirty tons”; TEV “34,000 kilogrammes.”
5 tn Heb “so his hands would be with him.”
6 tn Heb “to keep hold of the kingdom in his hand.”
7 map For location see Map1-D2; Map2-D3; Map3-A2; Map4-C1.
8 tn Heb “them.”
9 tn Heb “son.” Both terms (“servant” and “son”) reflect Ahaz’s subordinate position as Tiglath-pileser’s subject.
10 tn Heb “hand, palm.”
11 tn Heb “who have arisen against.”
12 tn Heb “and Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went and returned and lived in Nineveh.”
13 sn The assassination probably took place in 681
14 sn No such Mesopotamian god is presently known. Perhaps the name is a corruption of Nusku.
15 tc Although “his sons” is absent in the Kethib, it is supported by the Qere, along with many medieval Hebrew
16 sn Extra-biblical sources also mention the assassination of Sennacherib, though they refer to only one assassin. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 239-40.
17 tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in vv. 14, 19 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
18 tn Heb “Ephraim will be too shattered to be a nation”; NIV “to be a people.”
19 tn Heb “Woe [to] Assyria, the club of my anger.” On הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) see the note on the first phrase of 1:4.
20 tn Heb “a cudgel is he, in their hand is my anger.” It seems likely that the final mem (ם) on בְיָדָם (bÿyadam) is not a pronominal suffix (“in their hand”), but an enclitic mem. If so, one can translate literally, “a cudgel is he in the hand of my anger.”
21 sn Throughout this section singular forms are used to refer to Assyria; perhaps the king of Assyria is in view (see v. 12).
22 tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “impious”; NCV “separated from God.”
23 tn Heb “and against the people of my anger I ordered him.”
24 tn Heb “to make it [i.e., the people] a trampled place.”
25 tn The statement is constructed as a rhetorical question in the Hebrew text: “Is it not [true that] just as I have done to Samaria and its idols, so I will do to Jerusalem and its idols?”
26 tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.
27 tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in vv. 16, 23, 24, 33 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
28 tn Heb “his work on/against.” Cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV “on”; NIV “against.”
29 tn The Lord is speaking here, as in vv. 5-6a.
30 tn Heb “I will visit [judgment] on the fruit of the greatness of the heart of the king of Assyria, and on the glory of the height of his eyes.” The proud Assyrian king is likened to a large, beautiful fruit tree.