Isaiah 22:4 - Exposition

Therefore said I. The prophet turns from the description of the scene before him to an account of his own feelings. Look away from me, he says ; "leave me free to vent my sorrow without restraint; I wish for no consolation—only leave me to myself." Because of the spoiling . The word used sometimes means" destruction;" but" spoiling" is a better rendering here. Sennacherib describes his "spoiling" of Jerusalem on this occasion as follows: "Thirty talents of gold, eight hundred talents of silver, precious carbuncles, great … stones, couches of ivory, lofty thrones of ivory, skins of buffaloes, horns of buffaloes, weapons, everything, a great treasure, and his daughters, the eunuchs of his palace, male musicians, and female musicians, to Nineveh, the city of my dominion, did Hezekiah send after me". To what straits Hezekiah was reduced in order to collect a sufficient amount of the precious metals we learn from 2 Kings 18:15 , 2 Kings 18:16 .