2 Kings 19:24

I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(24) I have digged and drunk strange waters.—Scarcity of water has hitherto been no bar to my advance. In foreign and hostile lands, where the fountains and cisterns have been stopped and covered in (2Chronicles 32:3), I have digged new wells.

And with the sole . . . places.—Rather, and I will dry up with the sole of my feet all the Nile arms of Māçôr—i.e., Lower Egypt. (Comp. Isaiah 19:5 seq.) Neither mountains nor rivers avail to stop my progress. As the style is poetical, perhaps it would be correct to take the perfects, which in 2Kings 19:23-24 alternate with imperfects, in a future sense: “I—I will ascend lofty mountains . . . I will dig and drink strange waters” the latter in the arid desert that lies between Egypt and Palestine (the Et-Tîh). Otherwise, both perfects and imperfects may mark what is habitual: “I ascend . . . I dig.”

Benson Commentary

2 Kings 19:24. I have digged and drunk strange waters — That is, says Vitringa, “I have hitherto possessed all my desires; whatever I have vehemently thirsted after, I have attained.” Others understand this and the following clause more literally, thus: “I have marched through deserts, where it was expected my army would have perished with thirst; and yet even there have I digged and found water: and I have rendered rivers fordable by turning their streams from their ancient beds, and have deprived the besieged of the benefit of those waters.” Vitringa, however, renders the last clause, with the sole of my feet will I dry up all the rivers of Egypt. The prophet is thought to allude to a custom of the Egyptians, who commonly made use of machines, which were worked by the foot, to draw water from rivers, for whatever purpose it might be wanted; and the meaning, according to Vitringa, is, that the Assyrian, by the assistance of his very numerous army, the sole of his foot, would dry up all the rivers of Egypt, so that they should not delay the success of his expedition. The expression is of the hyperbolic kind, and well suits this haughty monarch, whose mind was at this time full of his expedition into Judea and Egypt. — See Dr. Dodd.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

19:20-34 All Sennacherib's motions were under the Divine cognizance. God himself undertakes to defend the city; and that person, that place, cannot but be safe, which he undertakes to protect. The invasion of the Assyrians probably had prevented the land from being sown that year. The next is supposed to have been the sabbatical year, but the Lord engaged that the produce of the land should be sufficient for their support during those two years. As the performance of this promise was to be after the destruction of Sennacherib's army, it was a sign to Hezekiah's faith, assuring him of that present deliverance, as an earnest of the Lord's future care of the kingdom of Judah. This the Lord would perform, not for their righteousness, but his own glory. May our hearts be as good ground, that his word may strike root therein, and bring forth fruit in our lives.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Have digged and drunk ... and dried up - The meaning seems to be - "Mountains do not stop me - I cross them even in my chariots. Deserts do not stop me - I dig wells there, and drink the water. Rivers do not stop me - I pass them as easily as if they were dry land."

The rivers of besieged places - Rather, "the rivers of Egypt." The singular form, Mazor (compare the modern Misr and the Assyrian Muzr), is here used instead of the ordinary dual form, Mizraim, perhaps because "Lower Egypt" only is intended. This was so cut up with canals and branches of the Nile, natural and artificial, that it was regarded as impassable for chariots and horses. Sennacherib, however, thought that these many streams would prove no impediments to him; he would advance as fast as if they were "dried up."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

20. Then Isaiah … sent—A revelation having been made to Isaiah, the prophet announced to the king that his prayer was heard. The prophetic message consisted of three different portions:—First, Sennacherib is apostrophized (2Ki 19:21-28) in a highly poetical strain, admirably descriptive of the turgid vanity, haughty pretensions, and presumptuous impiety of the Assyrian despot. Secondly, Hezekiah is addressed (2Ki 19:29-31), and a sign is given him of the promised deliverance—namely, that for two years the presence of the enemy would interrupt the peaceful pursuits of husbandry, but in the third year the people would be in circumstances to till their fields and vineyards and reap the fruits as formerly. Thirdly, the issue of Sennacherib's invasion is announced (2Ki 19:32-34).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Strange waters; such as were never discovered nor used by others. And therefore all thy endeavours to deprive me of water for my army, 2 Chronicles 32:3, are idle and fruitless.

With the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places; and as I can furnish my army with water digged out of the earth, by their labour, and my art; so I can deprive my enemies of their water, and can dry up their rivers, and that with the sole of my feet, i.e. with the march of my vast and numerous army, who will easily do this, either by marching through them, and each carrying part away with them; or by drinking every one a little of them; or by their pains making many new channels, and driving the waters of the river into them, as Cyrus dried up Euphrates, and thereby took Babylon.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And it came to pass, when King Hezekiah heard it,.... The report of Rabshakeh's speech, recorded in the preceding chapter:

that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth; rent his clothes because of the blasphemy in the speech; and he put on sackcloth, in token of mourning, for the calamities he feared were coming on him and his people: and he went into the house of the Lord; the temple, to pray unto him. The message he sent to Isaiah, with his answer, and the threatening letter of the king of Assyria, Hezekiah's prayer upon it, and the encouraging answer he had from the Lord, with the account of the destruction of the Assyrian army, and the death of Sennacherib, are the same "verbatim" as in Isaiah 37:1 throughout; and therefore the reader is referred thither for the exposition of them; only would add what Rauwolff (t) observes, that still to this day (1575) there are two great holes to be seen, wherein they flung the dead bodies (of the Assyrian army), one whereof is close by the road towards Bethlehem, the other towards the right hand against old Bethel.

(t) Travels, par. 3. ch. 22. p. 317.

Geneva Study Bible

I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

24. I have digged and drunk strange waters] Probably there is some allusion in this boast which is put into the mouth of Sennacherib to the attempts made by Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 32:3-4) to deprive the Assyrians of a supply of water. Sennacherib means to say: ‘Do what you may I am able by digging wells wherever I go to get water for my host, even where none had been found before’. This is most likely the sense of ‘strange’, which word does not appear in the corresponding verse of Isaiah.

And with the sole of my feet have I dried] [R.V. will I dry] up all the rivers of besieged places] R.V. of Egypt. This is a boast of the opposite nature. In Judæa the trouble might be that there was too little water. In Egypt there would be too much. But as in the former case the Assyrian could surmount all difficulties, so he had but to march into Egypt, and at his approach the Nile should be dried up and make a way for his troops to pass. The change of tense in the verb is necessary from the Hebrew, and the language is the proud king’s way of saying ‘As soon as I have reduced Jerusalem, I will pass on to Egypt and win that land too’.

The word translated ‘rivers’ is the Heb. ‘Yeor’ and is a proper name of the Nile. See R.V. Genesis 41:1 margin. It is translated ‘Nile’ in R.V. of Isaiah 19:7, three times over. Also the word rendered ‘besieged places’ is the Hebrew ‘Mazor’ another form for ‘Mizraim’ the common word for ‘Egypt’, ‘Mazor’ is translated ‘Egypt’ in R.V. both here and in Isaiah 19:6, and Micah 7:12.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 24. - I have digged and drunk strange waters; rather, perhaps, I dig, and drink... and dry up - the preterit having again a present sense. Sennacherib means that this is what he is wont to do. As mountains do not stop him (ver. 23), so deserts do not stop him - he digs wells in them, and drinks water "strange" to the soil - never before seen there. And with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places; rather, will 1 dry up all the rivers of Egypt (compare the Revised Version. "Mazor" is used for "Egypt" in Isaiah 19:6 and Micah 7:12). It is the old singular from which was formed the dual Mizraim. Whether it meant "land of strength" (Pusey), or "land of distress" (Ewald), may be doubted, since we have no right to assume a Hebrew derivation. There was probably a native word, from which the Hebrew Mazor, the Assyrian Muzr, and the Arabic Misr were taken. Sennacherib's beast is that, as he makes deserts traversable by digging wells, so, if rivers try to stop him, he will find a way of drying them up. Compare the boasts of Alaric in Claudian ('Bell. Get.,' pp. 525-532), who had probably this passage of Kings in his thoughts -

"To patior suadente fugam, cum cesserit omnis
Obsequiis natura meis?
Subsidere nostris Sub pedibus montes, arescere vidimus amnes
Fregi Alpes, galeisque Padum victricibus hausi." 2 Kings 19:24

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

2 Kings 19:24 refers to the intended conquest of Egypt. Just as Lebanon could not stop the expeditions of the Assyrians, or keep them back from the conquest of the land of Canaan, so the desert of et Tih, which separated Egypt from Asia, notwithstanding its want of water (cf. Herod. iii. 5; Rob. Pal. i. p. 262), was no hindrance to him, which could prevent his forcing his way through it and laying Egypt waste. The digging of water is, of course, not merely "a reopening of the wells that had been choked with rubbish, and the cisterns that had been covered up before the approaching enemy" (Thenius), but the digging of wells in the waterless desert. זרים מים, strange water, is not merely water belonging to others, but water not belonging to this soil (Drechsler), i.e., water supplied by a region which had none at other times. By the perfects the thing is represented as already done, as exposed to no doubt whatever; we must bear in mind, however, that the desert of et Tih is not expressly named, but the expression is couched in such general terms, that we may also assume that it includes what the Assyrian had really effected in his expeditions through similar regions. The drying up of the rivers with the soles of the feet is a hyperbolical expression denoting the omnipotence with which the Assyrian rules over the earth. Just as he digs water in the desert where no water is to be had, so does he annihilate it where mighty rivers exist.

(Note: Compare the similar boasting of Alarich, already quoted by earlier commentators, in Claudian, de bello Geth. v. 526ff.:

                                  cum cesserit omnis

Obsequiis natura meis? subsidere nostris

Sub pedibus montes, arescere vidimus amnes.

v. 532. Fregi Alpes. galeis Padum victricibus hausi.)

יאורי are the arms and canals of the Yeor, i.e., of the Nile. מצור, a rhetorical epithet for Egypt, used not only here, but also in Isaiah 19:6 and Micah 7:12.