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2 Kings 18:24

in 2 Kings 18

For how can you repel a single officer among the least of my master’s servants when you depend on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

How then canst thou turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

KJV

How then wilt thou turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

This verse in 2 Kings 18

Commentary

5 notes on this verse

A commentator

Ephrem the Syrian

ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 18:19 · Written before 373.

As I have already said, Sennacherib is a type of the devil, and this hypothesis is perfectly confirmed by the words that in this passage the Rabshakeh boastfully speaks against God when he makes false promises to the people, trying to take away from [God] …

This site's exposition

make a bargain with my master

on 2 Kings 18:23-24

The offer to "make a bargain" is a wager, "two thousand horses", a boast built to expose how small and poorly mounted Hezekiah's forces are. Verse 24 presses the point, "a single officer among the least of my master’s servants," ranking the army of Judah beneath one Assyrian officer.

This site's exposition

repel a single officer

Isaiah 31:1 pronounces woe on those who go down to Egypt for help and trust in its chariots and horsemen. Rabshakeh's taunt and Isaiah's oracle name the same misplaced trust. Matthew Henry notes that Sennacherib stood as a little god in his officer's eyes.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

What an idol did he make of that prince whose creature he was! God is the great King, but Sennacherib was in his eye a little god, and he would possess them with the same veneration for him that he had, and thereby frighten them into a submission to him. But to those who by faith see the King of kings in his power and glory even the king of Assyria looks mean and little.

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

His great piety, which was the more wonderful because his father was very wicked and vile, one of the worst of the kings, yet he was one of the best, which may intimate to us that what good there is in any is not of nature, but of grace, free grace, sovereign grace, which, contrary to nature, grafts into the good olive that which was wild by nature ( Rom. xi.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

The words behind it

15 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וְאֵ֣יךְand how?

    veeikhH349 →82 times

  • תָּשִׁ֗יבwill you turn back

    tashivH7725 →1056 times

  • אֵ֠ת<obj.>

    ʾetH853 →10935 times

  • פְּנֵ֨י[the] face of

    peneiH6440 →2123 times

  • פַחַ֥ת[the] governor

    fachatH6346 →

  • אַחַ֛ד<of> one of

    ʾachadH259 →971 times

  • עַבְדֵ֥י[the] servants of

    ʾavdeiH5650 →799 times

  • אֲדֹנִ֖יmaster my

    ʾadoniH113 →333 times

  • הַקְּטַנִּ֑ים<the> small

    haketanimH6996 →101 times

  • וַתִּבְטַ֤חand you have been relying

    vativtachH982 →120 times

  • לְךָ֙<for> yourself

    lekha

  • עַל־on

    ʾal-H5921 →5755 times

  • מִצְרַ֔יִםEgypt

    mitzrayimH4714 →641 times

  • לְרֶ֖כֶבfor chariotry

    lerekhevH7393 →119 times

  • וּלְפָרָשִֽׁים׃and for horsemen

    ulefarashimH6571 →57 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Isaiah 31:1

    Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in their abundance of chariots and in their multitude of horsemen. They do not look to the Holy…

    it leads to

    • Deuteronomy 17:16

      But the king must not acquire many horses for himself or send the people back to Egypt to acquire more horses, for the LORD has said, ‘You are never to go back that way…

      Reached by 3 separate paths from here.

    • Psalms 20:7

      Some trust in chariots and others in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.

    • Jeremiah 17:5

      This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes the flesh his strength and turns his heart from the LORD.

    • Jeremiah 2:13

      “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns—broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

    • Isaiah 36:9

      For how can you repel a single officer among the least of my master’s servants when you depend on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

  • Through

    2 Kings 18:21

    Look now, you are trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust…

    it leads to

    • Isaiah 30:7

      Egypt’s help is futile and empty; therefore I have called her Rahab Who Sits Still.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Ezekiel 29:6–7

      Then all the people of Egypt will know that I am the LORD. For you were only a staff of reeds to the house of Israel.

  • Through

    Ezekiel 17:15

    But this king rebelled against Babylon by sending his envoys to Egypt to ask for horses and a large army. Will he flourish? Will the one who does such things escape? Can he break…

    it leads to

    • Jeremiah 38:18

      But if you do not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, then this city will be delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans. They will burn it down, and you yourself…

Where this verse is studied

About 2 Kings

Jews Mourning in Exile, Eduard Bendemann, 1832, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum. Public domain.
Jews Mourning in Exile, Eduard Bendemann, 1832, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Berean Standard Bible, Isaiah 31:1; Ephrem the Syrian, ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 18:19; Keil, The Books of the Kings and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.