6 Isaiah said to them, "Tell your master, 'Thus says Yahweh, "Don't be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Thus saith Jehovah. Isaiah begins by saying that he gives the reply in the name of God, and expressly declares that the oracle comes from God, both because prophets ought always to beware of bringing forward anything of their own, and because in so difficult a matter the authority of God was needful. In this manner also, the Prophet shewed that he met the prayers of the pious king. Even false prophets, indeed, boast of the name of God, but falsely. Isaiah was truly the organ of the Holy Spirit, and therefore he has a right to mention the holy name of Him that sent him. Fear not. When he bids him "not fear," he exhorts Hezekiah to be of a courageous or, at least, a calm disposition. Whenever we hear this word, let us be reminded that we are enjoined to cultivate that peace which faith produces in our hearts; for all who trust in God, and expect from him deliverance from their distresses, rise superior to all fears by the exercise of patience, so that even in the midst of affliction they have peace. Besides, in order that the pious king may continue cheerfully to expect a joyful issue, he plainly declares that God conducts his own cause which he has undertaken to defend, because he cannot permit wicked men unpunished to dishonor his name without making it appear at length that he is a righteous judge. [1] The servants of the king of Assyria. By calling them servants, he presents in a stronger light the baseness of the action; for although the king himself had spoken in this manner, still it would have been intolerable that the Lord should be despised and so shamefully attacked by a mortal man. Hence it might easily be concluded that much less would he endure to be so highly insulted by "servants," [2] and therefore the rank of the person increases the heinoushess of the attack.
1 - "En les punissant." "By punishing them."
2 - "The word translated servants, is not the same with that in the preceding verse, but strictly means young men or boys, and is so translated in the Targ. and Vulg. Many interpreters regard it as a contemptuous description, and it is so translated by Hitzig, (knappen, attendants.) Umbreit, (buben, boys or lads,) Henderson, (striplings,) and in other modern versions." -- Alexander.
Wherewith the servants - Hebrew, נערי na‛ărēy - The 'youth,' or the young men. The word properly denotes boys, youths, young men; and is used here probably by way of disparagement, in contradistinction from an embassy that would be truly respectable, made up of aged men.
Have blasphemed me - God regarded these words as spoken against himself and he would vindicate his own honor and name.
Thus shall ye say - כה תאמרון ko tomerun, "thus shall ye (explicitly, earnestly, and positively) say. "The paragogic nun deepens and increases the sense.
And Isaiah said unto them, thus shall you say unto your master,.... Or, "your lord" (q); King Hezekiah, whose ministers and messengers they were:
thus saith the Lord, be not afraid of the words thou hast heard; be not not terrified by them, they are but words, and no more, and will never become facts:
wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me; by representing him as no better than the gods of the Gentiles, and as unable to deliver out of the hands of the king of Assyria the city of Jerusalem, when he had said he would. The word (r) for "servants" signifies boys, lads, young men; so Rabshakeh and his two companions, Rabsaris and Tartan, are called, by way of contempt, they acting a weak and childish part as well as a wicked one.
(q) "ad dominum vestrum", Montanus. (r) "pueri recens nati, infantes, pueri judicio", Gusset.
servants--literally, "youths," mere lads, implying disparagement, not an embassy of venerable elders. The Hebrew is different from that for "servants" in Isaiah 37:5.
blasphemed me-- (Isaiah 36:20).
*More commentary available at chapter level.