| Geneva Study Bible Thy heart {y} shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers? (y) Before this liberty comes you will think that you are in great danger: for the enemy will so sharply assail you that one will cry Where is the clerk that writes the names of them who are taxed? another, Where is the receiver? another will cry for him that values the rich houses, but God will deliver you from this fear. Wesley's Notes 33:18 Thine heart - This is a thankful acknowledgment of deliverance from their former terrors and miseries. Where - These words they spoke in the time of their distress. The scribe, whom we call muster - master, was to make and keep a list of the soldiers, and to call them together as occasion required: the receiver, received and laid out the money for the charges of the war; and he that counted the towers, surveyed all the parts of the city, and considered what towers or fortifications were to be made or repaired. And unto these several officers the people resorted, with great distraction and confusion. King James Translators' Notes receiver: Heb. weigher? Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary 18. meditate-on the "terror" caused by the enemy, but now past. where, &c.-the language of the Jews exulting over their escape from danger. scribe-who enrolled the army [Maurer]; or, who prescribed the tribute to be paid [Rosenmuller]; or, who kept an account of the spoil. "The principal scribe of the host" (2Ki 25:19; Jer 52:25). The Assyrian records are free from the exaggerations of Egyptian records. Two scribes are seen in every Assyrian bas-relief, writing down the various objects brought to them, the heads of the slain, prisoners, cattle, sheep, &c. receiver-"weigher," Margin. Layard mentions, among the Assyrian inscriptions, "a pair a scales for weighing the spoils." counted . towers-he whose duty it was to reconnoitre and report the strength of the city to be besieged. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 33:15-24 The true believer watches against all occasions of sin. The Divine power will keep him safe, and his faith in that power will keep him easy. He shall want nothing needful for him. Every blessing of salvation is freely bestowed on all that ask with humble, believing prayer; and the believer is safe in time and for ever. Those that walk uprightly shall not only have bread given, and their water sure, but they shall, by faith, see the King of kings in his beauty, the beauty of holiness. The remembrance of the terror they were in, shall add to the pleasure of their deliverance. It is desirable to be quiet in our own houses, but much more so to be quiet in God's house; and in every age Christ will have a seed to serve him. Jerusalem had no large river running by it, but the presence and power of God make up all wants. We have all in God, all we need, or can desire. By faith we take Christ for our Prince and Saviour; he reigns over his redeemed people. All that refuse to have Him to reign over them, make shipwreck of their souls. Sickness is taken away in mercy, when the fruit of it is the taking away of sin. If iniquity be taken away, we have little reason to complain of outward affliction. This last verse leads our thoughts, not only to the most glorious state of the gospel church on earth, but to heaven, where no sickness or trouble can enter. He that blotteth out our transgressions, will heal our souls. | 
