30. Addressed to Hezekiah.
sign--a token which, when fulfilled, would assure him of the
truth of the whole prophecy as to the enemy's overthrow. The two years,
in which they were sustained by the spontaneous growth of the earth,
were the two in which Judea had been already ravaged by Sennacherib
(Isa 32:10).
Thus translate: "Ye did eat (the first year) such as groweth of
itself, and in the second year that . . . but in this
third year sow ye," &c., for in this year the land shall be
delivered from the foe. The fact that Sennacherib moved his camp away
immediately after shows that the first two years refer to the
past, not to the future [ROSENMULLER]. Others,
referring the first two years to the future, get over the difficulty of
Sennacherib's speedy departure, by supposing that year to have
been the sabbatical year, and the second year the jubilee; no
indication of this appears in the context.
JFB.
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