Discovery BoxIsaiah 37:24-26 
Context37:24 Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master, 1
‘With my many chariots I climbed up
the high mountains,
the slopes of Lebanon.
I cut down its tall cedars
and its best evergreens.
I invaded its most remote regions, 2
its thickest woods.
37:25 I dug wells
and drank water. 3
With the soles of my feet I dried up
all the rivers of Egypt.’
37:26 4 Certainly you must have heard! 5
Long ago I worked it out,
in ancient times I planned 6 it,
and now I am bringing it to pass.
The plan is this:
Fortified cities will crash
into heaps of ruins. 7
1 tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
2 tn Heb “the height of its extremity”; ASV “its farthest height.”
3 tc The Hebrew text has simply, “I dug and drank water.” But the parallel text in 2 Kgs 19:24 has “foreign waters.” זָרִים (zarim, “foreign”) may have accidentally dropped out of the Isaianic text by homoioteleuton (cf. NCV, NIV, NLT). Note that the preceding word, מַיִם (mayim, “water) also ends in mem (ם). The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa has “foreign waters” for this line. However, in several other passages the 1QIsaa scroll harmonizes with 2 Kgs 19 against the MT (Isa 36:5; 37:9, 20). Since the addition of “foreign” to this text in Isaiah by a later scribe would be more likely than its deletion, the MT reading should be accepted.
4 tn Having quoted the Assyrian king’s arrogant words in vv. 23-24, the Lord now speaks to the king.
5 tn Heb “Have you not heard?” The rhetorical question expresses the Lord’s amazement that anyone might be ignorant of what he is about to say.
6 tn Heb “formed” (so KJV, ASV).
7 tn Heb “and it is to cause to crash into heaps of ruins fortified cities.” The subject of the third feminine singular verb תְהִי (tÿhi) is the implied plan, referred to in the preceding lines with third feminine singular pronominal suffixes.
