Whom hast thou reproached, and whom hast thou blasphemed, and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thy eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel.
אֶת־מִ֤י חֵרַ֙פְתָּ֙ וְגִדַּ֔פְתָּ וְעַל־מִ֖י הֲרִימ֣וֹתָה קּ֑וֹל וַתִּשָּׂ֥א מָר֛וֹם עֵינֶ֖יךָ אֶל־קְד֥וֹשׁ יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
3 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Whom have you criticized and insulted? Are not the tangible realities enough to persuade you? Who is the target of your arrows? To whom have you directed your voice and gaze with such arrogance? You now claim, "My hand has taken the riches of nations like nests; just as one removes the eggs that remain in them, so I have stripped the entire earth" (Isaiah 10:14). Yet, you scorn Me and attribute My strength to yourself.
This is the message that God proclaimed concerning him: You have spoken against Me, and the daughter of Zion has been distressed, while the ruler of Jerusalem has turned away from you. Whom have you insulted and inflamed with your words? To whom have you raised your voice, and have you not lifted your voice against the Holy One of Israel? You have mocked the Lord through your envoys. Ultimately, He declares His judgment upon the wicked and assures that He will treat him with scorn; the virgin daughter of Zion will shake her head in derision at him. He refers to her as the maiden and the daughter of Zion or Jerusalem. He describes her as pure and untainted by the vile practices of idolatry, yet calls her daughter due to the tender love a father holds for his offspring.
She showed disdain for the Assyrian, as if she had turned her head away from him, laughing at his defeat and, in essence, crafting a song and an appropriate verse celebrating his downfall. She then challenged him, saying, Whom have you insulted and incited to anger? To whom have you raised your voice? You have not spoken against any of the false deities with such audacity. Should you not, He asks, elevate your thoughts and reflect on who the God of Israel is? From the very observation of His creation, you ought to recognize the magnitude of the Creator’s power and witness the splendor of His glory, rather than hold a low view of Him. Yet you fail to remember these truths and revile the Lord.
After Hezekiah earnestly prayed to the Lord, he refrained from sending messengers to Isaiah as he had done previously, nor did the prophet himself approach Hezekiah. Instead, Isaiah sent envoys with a message from God, declaring, "This is the judgment of the Lord concerning Sennacherib, whom you inquire about: The virgin daughter of Zion and Jerusalem is called virgin and daughter because, while others have honored the images of the deceased, she alone maintains the purity of the true faith and reverence for the one true God. She has scorned and disdained you, refusing to respond in your presence to avoid provoking you to greater blasphemy. She shook her head at you as you departed, assured of divine retribution, with no doubt about the coming punishment.
And she declared, Not before me, but before the Lord, do you display your arrogance, and not by your own doing, but through your servants, so that the glory of the blasphemer may be more pronounced. For you have claimed that with the multitude of your chariots, you will ascend to the heights of the mountains and to the expanse of Lebanon, to fell its lofty cedars and cypresses." Here, Lebanon can be interpreted metaphorically to represent all nations and their leaders, while the cedars and cypresses symbolize the strong and esteemed. The very pinnacle and the forests of Carmel can be associated with the temple. As previously stated: For you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, laying waste to them (4 Kings 19:11). Consequently, you too will not find deliverance. He further claimed: And I dug and drank foreign water and will drain dry all the rivers of Egypt (1 Sam. 19:24), which can be understood literally, indicating that due to the large army, he depleted the water supplies and was compelled to dig wells. Figuratively, it signifies that he devastated all nations, represented by waters, with his army. Rather, the LXX translates this as: And I set up a bridge and drained the waters and every collection of waters, suggesting that no nation would be beyond his reach, but he would trample upon the waters of all nations.
Passages read together with this verse.
THEOSIS