25 I have dug, [a]and drunk the waters, and with the plant of my feet have I dried all the rivers closed in.

26 Hast thou not heard how I have of old time made it, [b]and have formed it long ago? and should I now bring it, that it should be destroyed, and laid on ruinous heaps, as cities defensed?

27 Whose inhabitants have [c]small power, and are afraid and confounded: they are like the grass of the field and green herb, or grass on the house tops, or corn blasted [d]afore it be grown.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 37:25 He boasteth of his policy, in that that he can find means to nourish his army: and of his power in that that his army is so great, that it is able to dry up whole rivers, and to destroy the waters which the Jews had closed in.
  2. Isaiah 37:26 Signifying, that God made not his Church to destroy it, but to preserve it: and therefore he saith that he formed it of old, even in his eternal counsel which cannot be changed.
  3. Isaiah 37:27 Hebrew, are short in hand.
  4. Isaiah 37:27 He showeth that the state and power of most flourishing cities endureth but a moment in respect of the Church, which shall remain forever, because God is the maintainer thereof.

25 I have dug wells in foreign lands[a]
    and drunk the water there.
With the soles of my feet
    I have dried up(A) all the streams of Egypt.(B)

26 “Have you not heard?
    Long ago I ordained(C) it.
In days of old I planned(D) it;
    now I have brought it to pass,
that you have turned fortified cities
    into piles of stone.(E)
27 Their people, drained of power,
    are dismayed and put to shame.
They are like plants in the field,
    like tender green shoots,
like grass(F) sprouting on the roof,(G)
    scorched[b] before it grows up.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 37:25 Dead Sea Scrolls (see also 2 Kings 19:24); Masoretic Text does not have in foreign lands.
  2. Isaiah 37:27 Some manuscripts of the Masoretic Text, Dead Sea Scrolls and some Septuagint manuscripts (see also 2 Kings 19:26); most manuscripts of the Masoretic Text roof / and terraced fields