2 Kings 18:32

2Ki 18:32 Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey, that ye may live, and not die: and hearken not unto Hezekiah, when he persuadeth you, saying, The LORD will deliver us.

Ver. 32. To a land like your own land.] Which was a land that God himself had "espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands." {Eze 20:6} Sumen totius orbis, in quo saxa durissima mel et oleum sudabant {Deu 32:13 Exo 3:17} This Rabshakeh here acknowledgeth, and is therein more ingenuous than Strabo the geographer ( strabus et pravus nimium), who traduceth Judea for dry and barren, nec satis dignam de qua magnopere pugnetur, not worth striving for. {a}

And hearken not unto Hezekiah.] This is a string that he much harpeth upon. It is our faith that Satan chiefly striketh at; {Luk 22:32} hold fast this shield. {Eph 6:16}

{a} Tacitus uber solum Iudaeis attribuit.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Ki 18:32. Until I take you away to a land like your own — That is, a fruitful and pleasant land. Because he could not conceal from them his intentions of transplanting them into another land, having already discovered these intentions in his dealing with the Israelites and other nations; he assures them they should be no losers by it, and should only change their place, but not their condition and comforts, which they should enjoy in that land no less than in their own.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18:32-35 The Lord will rescue us: The chief of staff continued his psychological taunting by asserting that the Lord was just like the gods of the other nations and could not save Judah. • Arpad was a city-state located northwest of Aleppo. Like Hamath, it was a hub of Aramean activity and is mentioned on other occasions in the Old Testament (see Isa 10:9; Jer 49:23).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

He maketh himself so sure, that he will not grant them truce, except they render themselves to him to be led away captives.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 32. Until I come and take you away] This was well calculated to stir up a seditious spirit. Ye cannot be delivered; your destruction, if ye resist, is inevitable; Sennacherib will do with you, as he does with all the nations he conquers, lead you captive into another land: but if you will surrender without farther trouble, he will transport you into a land as good as your own.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(32) Oil olive.—The cultivated as distinct from the wild olive, or oleaster (1Ki_6:23), which yields less and worse oil.

That ye may live.—Or, and ye shall live; a general promise of immunity, if they obey. (There should be, in this case, a stop at “honey.”)

When he persuadeth you.—Or, if he prick you on (1Ch_21:1).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

32. until I come and take you] Submission was to be followed, as was usual with Assyria, by deportation, but the people are promised a land as good as their own. For the similar description of the land of Canaan see Deu_8:7-9.

and not die] Again he refers, as to an argument likely to be most powerful, to the famine which was imminent if the siege continued.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Till. Sennacherib will remove you to another country, but it will be as good as this. He requires you to surrender at discretion. (Calmet) --- Deliver us. This will not be in his power, no more than it was in that of the other tutelary gods. (Menochius) --- Infidels and heretics are very foolish thus to compare their delusions with God, and his holy religion. (Worthington)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Like your own land, i.e. a fruitful and pleasant land. Because he could not conceal from them his intentions of transplanting them into another land, which he had already discovered in his dealing with the Israelites, and other nations, he assures them they shall be no losers by it; and shall only change their place, but not their condition and comforts; which they should enjoy in that land, no less than in their own.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

32. Until I come — From the siege of Lachish and the Egyptian campaign. Compare note on 2Ki_18:17. This seems to be the most natural reference of these words, for Rab-shakeh here speaks in the name of his absent master, who will finish the destruction of that “bruised reed” Egypt, and make the necessary preparations for returning to Assyria, and settling his captives in a pleasant land, before he comes to take them away. We need not attempt to define the land referred to; the whole promise was a mere pretext.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land. Rabshakeh did not dissemble the fact that they must look for a transplantation. Probably he felt that, if he did, he would not be believed.

The transplantations had been too numerous and too recent, the examples of Samaria, Damascus, Hamath, Ashdod, etc., were too notorious, for it to be worth his while to pretend that Judaea would have any other fate. He therefore set himself the task of persuading the Jews that transplantation had nothing about it displeasing or even disagreeable that, in fact, they were to be envied rather than pitied for being about to experience it. The King of Assyria, in the goodness of his paternal breast, would select for them a land as nearly as possible "like their own land a land teeming with corn and wine and oil, full of rich arable tracts, of vineyards and of olive-grounds, which would yield them those fruits of the earth to which they were accustomed, in abundance. What security they had that these promises would be fulfilled, he did not attempt to show them; much less did he explain to them why, if they were to gain rather than lose, it was worth while transplanting them at all; how that transplanted nations lost all spirit and patriotism, sank into apathy, and gave no trouble to their masters. A land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey. (comp. Deu_8:8, Deu_8:9, which has, no doubt, affected the language of the reporter, who gives the general tenor of Rabshakeh"s speech, but could not have taken down or have remembered his exact words) that ye may live, and not die as you win if you follow Hezekiah"s adviceand therefore hearken not unto Hezekiah, when he persuadethi.e. , seeketh to persuadeyou, saying, The Lord will deliver us (see the comment on ver. 30).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To a land like you land. This is my custom to move the nations from province to province. He should have said, “to a land better than yours,” because he came to persuade them, but he knew that they would recognize that his statement was false.

A land of grain and wine. This is Africa.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.