As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria;

As my hand hath found the king- dome of the idol, so also their idols of Jerusalem, and of Samaria.

As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and their graven images exceeded those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images excelled them of Jerusalem and of Samaria;

As my hand hath got to the kingdoms of a worthless thing, and their graven images, Greater than Jerusalem and than Samaria,

As my hand has come on the kingdoms of the images, whose pictured images were more in number than those of Jerusalem and Samaria;

As my hand hath reached the kingdoms of the idols, Whose graven images did exceed them of Jerusalem and of Samaria;

In the same manner as my hand reached the kingdoms of the idol, so also will it reach their false images, those of Jerusalem and of Samaria.

Sicut invenit manus mea regnum idolorum, cum simulachra eorum sint prae Ierusalem et Samaria.

As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols. The Assyrian now breaks out into far more outrageous language; for not only does he insult men, but he insults God himself, and even the very gods whom he worshipped. He boasts that the gods, whose protection the other nations enjoyed, could not prevent him from subduing them; and that the God of Israel, in whom Jerusalem and Samaria trusted, would not prevent him any more than they. Wicked men are so proud that they attribute to their own strength the victories which they achieve, and do not hesitate to exalt themselves against God and all that is worshipped. They allege, indeed, that they pay homage to the objects of their own worship, that is, to the idols which they have contrived for themselves, and bow before them, and offer sacrifices to them, by which they give some indication that they ascribe their victories to the gods; but afterwards, as Habakkuk says of Nebuchadnezzar, they burn incense to their own net, and sacrifice to their drag, (Habakkuk 1:16;) that is, by boasting of their exploits, wisdom, sagacity, and perseverance. Their hypocrisy is exposed, and their secret thoughts, which lay concealed under those folds of hypocrisy, are revealed, when they immediately claim for themselves what they appeared to ascribe to the objects of their worship. We need not wonder, therefore, that Sennacherib exalted himself against all that is worshipped, for that is the result of ungodliness. There are two ways in which his blasphemy is expressed. First, he exalts himself above God, and thinks that he will be stronger than God; and, secondly, he makes no distinction between God and the false gods. He sufficiently displayed his ungodliness, when he exalted himself alone even above idols; for although they are nothing but idols, yet as their worshippers ascribe to them some power and divinity, if they scoff at idols, they show that they despise every object of worship; for they treat idols with the same contempt as if they had had to do with God himself. Their own conscience testifies, therefore, that they carry on war against God, and they have no excuse arising from ignorance; for they think that God dwells in graven images. If that tyrant despised Apollo or Jupiter, he undoubtedly despised them, not as idols, but as having in them something divine. The second blasphemy of the tyrant was, that he placed the living God on the same level with the false gods of the heathen, and dared to scoff at him as well as at the others, and to ridicule the confidence of Israel, as if no greater power belonged to God than to idols.

The argument in these two verses is this: 'The nations which I have subdued were professedly under the protection of idol gods. Yet those idols were not able to defend them - though stronger than the gods worshipped by Jerusalem and Samaria. And is there any probability, therefore, that the protection on which you who are Jews are leaning, will be able to deliver you?' Jerusalem he regarded as an idolatrous city, like others; and as all others had hitherto been unable to retard his movements, he inferred that it would be so with Jerusalem. This is, therefore, the confident boasting of "a man" who regarded himself as able to vanquish all "the gods" that the nations worshipped. The same confident boasting he uttered when he sent messengers to Hezekiah; 2-Kings 19:12 : 'Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my father destroyed; as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden, which were in Thelasar?' Isaiah 36:18-20 : 'Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arphad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? And have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?'
Hath found - That is, 'I have found them unable to defend themselves by their trust in their idols, and have subdued them.'
The kingdoms of the idols - The kingdoms that worship idols.
And whose graven images - That is, whose idols; or whose representations of the gods. The word properly signifies that which is hewn or cut out; and then the block of wood, or stone, that is carved into an image of the god. Here it, refers to the gods themselves, probably, as having been found to be impotent, though he supposed them to be more powerful that those of Jerusalem and Samaria.
Did excel - Hebrew, 'More than Jerusalem,' where the inseperable preposition מ m, is used to denote comparison. They were "more" to be dreaded; or more mighty than those of Jerusalem.
Of Jerusalem - Jerusalem and Samaria had often been guilty of the worship of idols; and it is probable that Sennacherib regarded them as idolaters in the same sense as other nations. They had given occasion for this suspicion by their having often fallen into idolatrous habits; and the Assyrian monarch did not regard them as in any manner distinguished from surrounding nations. It is not improbable that he was aware that Jerusalem worshipped Yahweh (compare Isaiah 36:20); but he doubtless regarded Yahweh as a mere tutelary divinity - the special god of that land, as Baal, Ashtaroth, etc., were of the countries in which they were adored. For it was a common doctrine among ancient idolaters, that each nation had its special god; that the claims of that god were to be respected and regarded in that nation; and that thus all nations should worship their own gods undisturbed. Yahweh was thus regarded as the tutelary god of the Jewish nation. The sin of Sennacherib consisted in confounding Yahweh with false gods, and in then setting him at defiance.

As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols,.... Which worship idols, as the Targum paraphrases it. He speaks of them as being very easily taken by him; he had no trouble in subduing them; no sooner did he come up to them, and looked on them, and saw where they were, but they fell into his hands; they gave up themselves to him at once, and he took possession of them.
And whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria; being made of better metal, or more richly ornamented, or worshipped in a more pompous manner; or were "more" than they of Jerusalem and Samaria, exceeded them in number; or were "stronger" and mightier than they, as Kimchi supplies it, and yet could not protect them; or were "from Jerusalem, and from Samaria"; the wicked men of Israel, Jarchi says, supplied all the nations with images, they all sprung from them; and if the idols which came from hence could not secure the nations of the earth from falling into the hands of the Assyrian monarch, neither could they preserve Jerusalem and Samaria from being taken by him.

found--unable to resist me: hath overcome (so Psalm 21:8).
and whose--rather, "and their." This clause, down to "Samaria," is parenthetical.
excel--were more powerful. He regards Jerusalem as idolatrous, an opinion which it often had given too much ground for: Jehovah was in his view the mere local god of Judea, as Baal of the countries where it was adored, nay, inferior in power to some national gods (Isaiah 36:19-20; Isaiah 37:12). See in opposition, Isaiah 37:20; Isaiah 46:1.
As my hand . . . shall I not, as I have--a double protasis. Agitation makes one accumulate sentences.

The kingdoms - Which worshipped their own idols, and vainly imagined that they could protect them from my power. He calls the gods of the nations, not excepting Jerusalem, idols, by way of contempt, because none of them could deliver their people out of his hands, and because he judged them to be but petty gods, far inferior to the sun, which was the god of the Assyrians.