Matthew Poole and continuators on 2 Kings 19:23

23 By thy messengers thou hast reproached the LORD, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains , to the sides of Lebanon , and will cut down the tall cedars thereof, and the choice fir-trees thereof : and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders , and into the forest of his Carmel.

So thou hast advanced thy very Servants above me.

I have brought up my very Chariots to those Mountains which were thought inaccessible by my Army.

An high Hill, famous for Cedars and Fir-trees, here following.

This may be understood, either, 1. Mystically, I will destroy the Princes, and Nobles of Iudah, (which are sometimes compared to cedars, &c.) Or, their strongest Cities. Or rather, 2. Literally, I will cut down the Trees that hinder my March, and plain and prepare the way for all my Numerous Army and Chariots. And by this one Instance, he intimates, That nothing should stand in his way; no not the highest and strongest Places.

i. e. Those Towns and Cities (which he calls Lodgings in way of Contempt) which are in his utmost Borders, and most remote from me. I am come into the Land of Canaan at one Border Lebanon, and I resolve to March on, to the other extreme Border, and so to Destroy the whole Countrey, from one Border to another: the borders of a Land being oft put for the whole Land within its Borders; as Exod. 8. 2. Psal. 74. 17. and 147. 14. Isa. 54. 12. Or, as it is in the Hebrew, into the lodging of his border; for which in the Parallel place, Isa. 37. 24. it is, into the height of his border. And so this may be understood of Ierusalem; which it is not probable, that in all his brags he would omit; and against which, his chief Design now lay, which he here calleth a lodging, for its contemptible smallness, if compared with his great and vast City of Niniveh; or, as it is in Isa. 37. the height, for its Two famous Mountains, Zion and Moriah; or for the Mountains which were round about Ierusalem; Psal. 125. 2. and he adds, of his border, because this City was in the Border of Iudah; as being part of it in the Tribe of Benjamin, and near the Kingdom of the Ten Tribes, which was now in the Assyrians hands.

h i. e. The Forest of Mount Carmel, which may seem to be another Inaccessible Place, like Lebanon. Or, into his forest, and his fruitful field. For Carmel, though properly it was a pleasant and fruitful Mountain in the Tribe of Issachar, of which see Iosh. 12. 22. yet it is oft used to signifie, any fruitful place, as is manifest from Isa. 10. 18. and 16. 10. Ier. 2. 7. And thus all the parts of the Land are here enumerated; the Mountains, the Cities, the Woods, and the Fruitful Fields. Or, his fruitful forest; to wit, Ierusalem; which is thought by many Interpreters, to be called a Forest, Ier. 21. 14. Ezek 20. 46. a name which agrees well enough to Cities, where Buildings are very numerous, and close, and high, like Trees in a Forest. And if Ierusalem might be called a Forest, it might well be called, Hezekiah's Carmel; or, Fruitful Place: because his Chief Strength, and Treasure, and Fruit was now in it: and this last Word may seem to be added here, to intimate, That this was not like other Forests, unfruitful, and barren. And so both this, and the foregoing words are understood of the same place, even of Ierusalem; the last Branch being joyned to the former by way of Apposition; into the lodging of his border, the forest of his Carmel; or, his fruitful Forest; there being no more words in the Hebrew Text.

Marginal references: Heb. By the hand of, &c.; Heb. the tallness, &c.; Or, the forest and his fruitful field.