Excerpt - Apocalyptic Commentary of the Book of Isaiah by Avraham Gileadi, Ph.D.

37:23-24 Whom have you mocked and ridiculed? Against whom have you raised your voice, lifting your eyes to high heaven? Against the Holy One of Israel! By your servants you have blasphemed my Lord.

By mocking Hezekiah and his people-with whom Jehovah has covenanted to be their God and they his people-and by comparing Jehovah with the lifeless gods of the nations, the king of Assyria has mocked the living God. The "Holy One of Israel," who serves as a paradigm of holiness to his people (Isaiah 5:16; 6:3, 13; 13:3; 29:23; 35:8; 48:17; 62:12), stands in stark contrast to the Assyrian tyrant, the unholy paradigm and voice of the wicked. By violating the rights of Jehovah's covenant people, the king of Assyria unwittingly brings upon himself the curses of the covenant Jehovah made with them.

37:24-25 You thought, On account of my vast chariotry I have conquered the highest mountains, the farthest reaches of Lebanon. I have felled its tallest cedars, its choicest cypresses. I have reached its loftiest summit, its finest forest. I have dug wells and drunk of foreign waters. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all Egypt's rivers!

Like the conquering heroes of Mesopotamian mythology, the king of Assyria boasts of cutting down the cedars of Lebanon. As noted, while "Lebanon" represents Jehovah's elite people in the writings of the prophets (Isaiah 37:24; Jeremiah 22:23; Ezekiel 17:3), synonymous parallels identify "mountains" as nations or kingdoms (Isaiah 13:4; 64:1-3), "forests" as cities (Isaiah 32:19), and "cedars" and other trees as people (Isaiah 14:8; 61:3). Isaiah further compares the king of Assyria/Babylon to an axe and saw that hews down the wicked (Isaiah 10:15; 14:3-8), signifying his primary function as a power of chaos.
These are things Isaiah had foretold: "Jehovah of Hosts has a day in store for all the proud and arrogant and for all who are exalted, that they may be brought low. [It shall come] against all the lofty cedars of Lebanon that lift themselves up high, and against all the oaks of Bashan, against all high mountains and elevated hills" (Isaiah 2:12-14); "Then will my Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, shatter the towering [trees] with terrifying power; the high in stature shall be hewn down, the lofty ones leveled. The dense forests will be battered down with [the force of] iron, and Lebanon fall spectacularly" (Isaiah 10:33-34).

See more here and here
Buy the book