(10) Sothe posts passed.--And the couriers were passing.
Even unto Zebulun.--This tribe, which lay on the southern border of Naphtali, had suffered from Tiglath-pileser's invasion (Isaiah 9:1). The messengers did not actually travel northward so far as Dan (2 Chronicles 30:5). This mention of Zebulun as the limit of their journey lends an air of historical truth to the account.
Laughed them to scorn.--Literally, and they were laughing at them (hish?iq: here only), and making mock of them (Psalm 22:7). The verbs imply what the Israelites did continually. Vulg., "cursores pergebant . . . illis irridentibus et subsannantibus eos."
Verse 10. - Through... Ephraim and Manasseh. The way in which the names of these two tribes are here used may explain in part the use of them in brief for simple reasons of the convenience of brevity in ver. 1. They laughed them to scorn, and mocked them. These two words speak significant description of the exact moral state in which Israel's tribes were now to be found. Even unto Zebulun. What of the country lay north of Zebulun had been so wasted by Assyria that practically Zebulnn is spoken of as what was most northerly.
30:1-12 Hezekiah made Israel as welcome to the passover, as any of his own subjects. Let us yield ourselves unto the Lord. Say not, you will do what you please, but resolve to do what he pleases. We perceive in the carnal mind a stiffness, an obstinacy, an unaptness to compel with God; we have it from our fathers: this must be overcome. Those who, through grace, have turned to God themselves, should do all they can to bring others to him. Numbers will be scorners, but some will be humbled and benefited; perhaps where least expected. The rich mercy of God is the great argument by which to enforce repentance; the vilest who submit and yield themselves to the Lord, seek his grace, and give themselves to his service, shall certainly be saved. Oh that messengers were sent forth to carry these glad tidings to every city and every village, through every land!
So the posts passed from city to city, through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even unto Zebulun,.... Through all the ten tribes, not being hindered or forbid by Hoshea king of Israel, who was one of the best of their kings, and was very willing his people should go and worship at Jerusalem if they thought fit; so that they had no excuse to make, as before, that they were forbid by their king going thither; and which it is very probable Hezekiah knew, and therefore took the freedom to send posts throughout his kingdom:
but they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them; the messengers that brought the letters, the contents of which they despised, and paid no regard to; this was the behaviour of many, and probably of the greater part, but not of all, as follows.
Even unto Zebulun.--This tribe, which lay on the southern border of Naphtali, had suffered from Tiglath-pileser's invasion (Isaiah 9:1). The messengers did not actually travel northward so far as Dan (2 Chronicles 30:5). This mention of Zebulun as the limit of their journey lends an air of historical truth to the account.
Laughed them to scorn.--Literally, and they were laughing at them (hish?iq: here only), and making mock of them (Psalm 22:7). The verbs imply what the Israelites did continually. Vulg., "cursores pergebant . . . illis irridentibus et subsannantibus eos."
but they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them; the messengers that brought the letters, the contents of which they despised, and paid no regard to; this was the behaviour of many, and probably of the greater part, but not of all, as follows.