18. meditate--on the "terror" caused by the enemy, but now past.
      where, &c.--the language of the Jews exulting over their escape from danger.
      scribe--who enrolled the army [MAURER]; or, who prescribed the tribute to be paid [ROSENMULLER]; or, who kept an account of the spoil. "The principal scribe of the host" (2Ki 25:19; Jer 52:25). The Assyrian records are free from the exaggerations of Egyptian records. Two scribes are seen in every Assyrian bas-relief, writing down the various objects brought to them, the heads of the slain, prisoners, cattle, sheep, &c.
      receiver--"weigher," Margin. LAYARD mentions, among the Assyrian inscriptions, "a pair a scales for weighing the spoils."
      counted . . . towers--he whose duty it was to reconnoitre and report the strength of the city to be besieged.

JFB.