Isa 37:1 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the LORD.
Isa 37:2 He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.
Isa 37:3 They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment of birth and there is no strength to deliver them.
Isa 37:4 It may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the living God, and that he will rebuke him for the words the LORD your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant that still survives.”
Isa 37:5 When King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah,
Isa 37:6 Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘This is what the LORD says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard—those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
Isa 37:7 Listen! When he hears a certain report, I will make him want to return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.'”
Isa 37:8 When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.
Isa 37:9 Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the king of Cush, was marching out to fight against him. When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word:
Isa 37:10 “Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.’
Isa 37:11 Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered?
Isa 37:12 Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my predecessors deliver them—the gods of Gozan, Harran, Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar?
Isa 37:13 Where is the king of Hamath or the king of Arpad? Where are the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah?”
Hezekiah’s Prayer for Deliverance
Isa 37:14 Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD.
Isa 37:15 And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD:
Isa 37:16 “LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.
Isa 37:17 Give ear, LORD, and hear; open your eyes, LORD, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.
Isa 37:18 “It is true, LORD, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands.
Isa 37:19 They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands.
Isa 37:20 Now, LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, LORD, are the only God.”
Sennacherib’s Fall
Isa 37:21 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria,
Isa 37:22 this is the word the LORD has spoken against him: “Virgin Daughter Zion despises and mocks you. Daughter Jerusalem tosses her head as you flee.
Isa 37:23 Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel!
Isa 37:24 By your messengers you have ridiculed the Lord. And you have said, ‘With my many chariots I have ascended the heights of the mountains, the utmost heights of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the choicest of its junipers. I have reached its remotest heights, the finest of its forests.
Isa 37:25 I have dug wells in foreign lands and drunk the water there. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.’
Isa 37:26 “Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In days of old I planned it; now I have brought it to pass, that you have turned fortified cities into piles of stone.
Isa 37:27 Their people, drained of power, are dismayed and put to shame. They are like plants in the field, like tender green shoots, like grass sprouting on the roof, scorched before it grows up.
Isa 37:28 “But I know where you are and when you come and go and how you rage against me.
Isa 37:29 Because you rage against me and because your insolence has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will make you return by the way you came.
Isa 37:30 “This will be the sign for you, Hezekiah: “This year you will eat what grows by itself, and the second year what springs from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
Isa 37:31 Once more a remnant of the kingdom of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above.
Isa 37:32 For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.
Isa 37:33 “Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning the king of Assyria: “He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it.
Isa 37:34 By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city,” declares the LORD.
Isa 37:35 “I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!”
Isa 37:36 Then the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies!
Isa 37:37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.
Isa 37:38 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer killed him with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.
1 Hezekiah mourning sendeth to Isaiah to pray for them. 6 Isaiah comforteth them. 8 Sennacherib, going to encounter Tirhakah, sendeth a blasphemous letter to Hezekiah. 14 Hezekiah’s prayer. 21 Isaiah’s prophecy of the pride and destruction of Sennacherib, and the good of Zion. 36 An angel slayeth the Assyrians. 37 Sennacherib is slain at Nineveh by his own sons.
Isa 37:1 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the LORD.
Isa 37:2 He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.
Isa 37:3 They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment of birth and there is no strength to deliver them.
Isa 37:4 It may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the living God, and that he will rebuke him for the words the LORD your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant that still survives.”
Isa 37:5 When King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah,
Isa 37:6 Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘This is what the LORD says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard—those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
Isa 37:7 Listen! When he hears a certain report, I will make him want to return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.'”
Isa 37:8 When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.
Isa 37:9 Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the king of Cush, was marching out to fight against him. When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word:
Isa 37:10 “Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.’
Isa 37:11 Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered?
Isa 37:12 Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my predecessors deliver them—the gods of Gozan, Harran, Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar?
Isa 37:13 Where is the king of Hamath or the king of Arpad? Where are the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah?”
Hezekiah’s Prayer for Deliverance
Isa 37:14 Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD.
Isa 37:15 And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD:
Isa 37:16 “LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.
Isa 37:17 Give ear, LORD, and hear; open your eyes, LORD, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.
Isa 37:18 “It is true, LORD, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands.
Isa 37:19 They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands.
Isa 37:20 Now, LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, LORD, are the only God.”
Sennacherib’s Fall
Isa 37:21 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria,
Isa 37:22 this is the word the LORD has spoken against him: “Virgin Daughter Zion despises and mocks you. Daughter Jerusalem tosses her head as you flee.
Isa 37:23 Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel!
Isa 37:24 By your messengers you have ridiculed the Lord. And you have said, ‘With my many chariots I have ascended the heights of the mountains, the utmost heights of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the choicest of its junipers. I have reached its remotest heights, the finest of its forests.
Isa 37:25 I have dug wells in foreign lands and drunk the water there. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.’
Isa 37:26 “Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In days of old I planned it; now I have brought it to pass, that you have turned fortified cities into piles of stone.
Isa 37:27 Their people, drained of power, are dismayed and put to shame. They are like plants in the field, like tender green shoots, like grass sprouting on the roof, scorched before it grows up.
Isa 37:28 “But I know where you are and when you come and go and how you rage against me.
Isa 37:29 Because you rage against me and because your insolence has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will make you return by the way you came.
Isa 37:30 “This will be the sign for you, Hezekiah: “This year you will eat what grows by itself, and the second year what springs from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
Isa 37:31 Once more a remnant of the kingdom of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above.
Isa 37:32 For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.
Isa 37:33 “Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning the king of Assyria: “He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it.
Isa 37:34 By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city,” declares the LORD.
Isa 37:35 “I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!”
Isa 37:36 Then the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies!
Isa 37:37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.
Isa 37:38 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer killed him with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.
Isa 37:1 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the LORD.
1. Rent his clothes. See on 2 Kings 19:1. Hezekiah’s resort to “the house of the Lord” was in keeping
with the counsel of Joel 1:8–14, given at another time of crisis.
Isa 37:2 He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.
2. Unto Isaiah. The king was in a dilemma from which none but a prophet of the true God could point a way of escape.
Isa 37:3 They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment of birth and there is no strength to deliver them.
3. Day of trouble. See on 2 Kings 19:3. As God answered the earnest prayers of His people in the days of Isaiah, so He will always hear and deliver them (see Ps. 46:5–11; 91).
Isa 37:4 It may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the living God, and that he will rebuke him for the words the LORD your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant that still survives.”
4. God will hear. See on 2 Kings 19:4. God can save “to the uttermost” all that come to Him, “seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25).
Isa 37:6 Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘This is what the LORD says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard—those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
6. Be not afraid. See on 2 Kings 19:6.
Isa 37:7 Listen! When he hears a certain report, I will make him want to return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.'”
7. I will send a blast. See on 2 Kings 19:7.
Isa 37:8 When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.
8. Libnah.See on 2 Kings 19:8.
Isa 37:9 Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the king of Cush, was marching out to fight against him. When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word:
9. Tirhakah. See on 2 Kings 19:9; see also Vol. II, pp. 53, 64. The approach of Tirhakah (Taharka) made it advisable for Sennacherib to renew his efforts to secure Hezekiah’s immediate submission.
He sent messengers. Dead Sea scroll 1QIsa reads, “he sent messengers again.”
Isa 37:10 “Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.’
10. Deceive thee. See on 2 Kings 19:10. Having failed to take Jerusalem by arms, Sennacherib was making a desperate effort to take it by words. His message this time was much the same as the previous one (Isa. 36:15, 18–20), only more desperate and defiant.
Isa 37:11 Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered?
11. To all lands. See on 2 Kings 19:11. The Assyrian kings were heartless and cruel, and proud of their cruelty. By the sheer horror of their bloody deeds they hoped to strike terror into the hearts of men and nations, and thus bring the world under their control.
Isa 37:11 Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered?
Isa 37:12 Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my predecessors deliver them—the gods of Gozan, Harran, Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar?
12. Gozan, and Haran. See on 2 Kings 19:12.
Isa 37:13 Where is the king of Hamath or the king of Arpad? Where are the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah?”
13. Of Hamath. See on 2 Kings 19:13. The same question had already been asked regarding the gods of Hamath and Arpad (Isa. 36:19), and now, of the kings of these cities. The implied answer is that they had met with the terrible fate of all who dared to resist Assyrian arms. Dead Sea scroll 1QIsa adds Samaria after Ivah.
Isa 37:14 Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD.
14. Received the letter. See on 2 Kings 19:14.
Isa 37:16 “LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.
16. Between the cherubims. See on 2 Kings 19:15.
Isa 37:17 Give ear, LORD, and hear; open your eyes, LORD, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.
17. To reproach. See on 2 Kings 19:16. Hezekiah regarded the words of Sennacherib as addressed not so much to himself as to God. Hezekiah ruled as the representative of God on earth.
Isa 37:18 “It is true, LORD, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands.
18. Laid waste all the nations. Assyria was now at the very height of its power. Tiglath-pileser III (745–727), Shalmaneser V (727–722), Sargon II (722–705), and Sennacherib (705–681) were the greatest kings that Assyria ever knew, and under their sway the nations of Western Asia were crushed and left desolate. If Sennacherib boasted, Hezekiah now frankly acknowledged that his boasting was not without reason. Dead Sea scroll 1QIsa omits “and their countries.”
Isa 37:19 They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands.
19. No gods. See on 2 Kings 19:18.
Isa 37:20 Now, LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, LORD, are the only God.”
20. All the kingdoms. See on 2 Kings 19:19.
Isa 37:21 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria,
21. Thus saith the Lord. It appears that Isaiah was not present when Hezekiah offered his earnest prayer, but that the Lord informed His prophet of the prayer, and of the favorable answer that would be given. At this time of national crisis God would not leave His people without hope. See on 2 Kings 19:20.
Isa 37:22 this is the word the LORD has spoken against him: “Virgin Daughter Zion despises and mocks you. Daughter Jerusalem tosses her head as you flee.
22. The virgin. Like a virgin, Zion had been threatened by Sennacherib, who was determined to humiliate her before the world. But Zion courageously refused to submit to the Assyrian, and God would reward her for her fidelity to Him. See on 2 Kings 19:21.
Isa 37:23 Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel!
23. The Holy One. See on 2 Kings 19:22. It was to Him that Zion was betrothed, and in reproaching her the Assyrian was reproaching God. For the honor of His own holy name God would come to the defense of Zion.
Isa 37:24 By your messengers you have ridiculed the Lord. And you have said, ‘With my many chariots I have ascended the heights of the mountains, the utmost heights of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the choicest of its junipers. I have reached its remotest heights, the finest of its forests.
24. Hast said. See on 2 Kings 19:23. Man was setting himself and his puny strength against the might of an omnipotent God. Sennacherib, like Lucifer, was guilty of self-glorification. His emphasis was on himself—“my chariots,” “am I come,” “I will cut down,” and “I will enter” (cf. Isa. 14:13, 14). The inscriptions of Sennacherib are replete with boasts such as this. But once more it was to be demonstrated that “pride goeth before destruction” (Prov. 16:18), and that “God resisteth the proud” (James 4:6).
Isa 37:25 I have dug wells in foreign lands and drunk the water there. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.’
25. Digged, and drunk. Sennacherib continues boasting of his power and his invincibility. Nothing can stop him. For him the difficulties that checkmate ordinary mortals are as nothing. See on 2 Kings 19:24.
Water. Dead Sea scroll 1QIsa reads “strange waters,” as in the parallel passage in 2 Kings 19:24.
Isa 37:26 “Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In days of old I planned it; now I have brought it to pass, that you have turned fortified cities into piles of stone.
26. I have done it. See on 2 Kings 19:25. Had God not withdrawn His protecting care from men and nations, the arms of Assyria would have been powerless against them.
Isa 37:27 Their people, drained of power, are dismayed and put to shame. They are like plants in the field, like tender green shoots, like grass sprouting on the roof, scorched before it grows up.
27. Of small power. See on 2 Kings 19:26.
Isa 37:28 “But I know where you are and when you come and go and how you rage against me.
28. I know thy abode. Dead Sea scroll 1QIsa reads, “I know your rising up and your sitting down” (see Lam. 3:63). God warns Sennacherib that He is perfectly informed concerning all his activities and his intentions. The phrases “going out” and “coming in” include every activity of life (see Ps. 121:8; 139:2, 3).
Isa 37:29 Because you rage against me and because your insolence has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will make you return by the way you came.
29. Hook in thy nose. See on 2 Kings 19:28. The Assyrians frequently resorted to the utmost barbarity in their treatment of their victims. Sennacherib will be treated as he has treated others. The same figure is used of the treatment that will ultimately be meted out to all workers of iniquity (Isa. 30:28; Eze. 38:4).
Isa 37:30 “This will be the sign for you, Hezekiah: “This year you will eat what grows by itself, and the second year what springs from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
30. A sign. See on 2 Kings 19:29. Hezekiah and the people of Judah are assured that God will give them a sign, as He often did (Isa. 7:11, 14; 38:8), in pledge of the fulfillment of the accompanying prediction. The Assyrian invasion had put a stop to all normal agricultural activities, but the people are assured of an adequate supply of food. The following year may have been a sabbatical year, during which enough food would grow of itself. The third year, however, would bring a resumption of normal life and activities. The fulfillment of this prediction within the specified time would be a token of the certain fulfillment of the wider promise in vs. 31, 32.
Isa 37:31 Once more a remnant of the kingdom of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above.
31. The remnant. See on 2 Kings 19:30.
Isa 37:32 For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.
32. The zeal of the Lord. See on 2 Kings 19:31. Only divine intervention would save Judah. Without God there was no hope. Israel had already been destroyed, and it now seemed that nothing could prevent Judah from suffering a similar fate.
Isa 37:33 “Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning the king of Assyria: “He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it.
33. Cast a bank. See on 2 Kings 19:32. The soldiers of Sennacherib were already encamped about the city, but would not proceed with the usual operations of a siege. No embankment would be thrown against the walls to allow the advance of siege engines and bowmen, and none of the enemy would succeed in entering the city. It appeared that Jerusalem was on the verge of a desperate siege, but that siege would not materialize.
Isa 37:34 By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city,” declares the LORD.
Isa 37:35 “I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!”
35. Mine own sake. In coming to the defense of Jerusalem, God was defending His own majesty and honor against the blasphemy of Sennacherib (see on v. 24).
Isa 37:36 Then the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies!
36. The angel of the Lord. See on 2 Kings 19:35. Angels are more commonly sent to save than to destroy. Nothing is known of the method employed by the angel upon this occasion, but whatever the method the visitation was sudden, and obliterated the besieging force. In accord with the ancient reluctance to enter unfavorable information in the national chronicles, the Assyrian records make no mention of this catastrophe. Various legendary explanations are without value.
Isa 37:37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.
37. Sennacherib. It is significant that Sennacherib was spared. He seems to have been with the portion of his army that was sent against Taharka (v. 9; see 2 Kings 19:9.) Perhaps the Lord intended him to return to his homeland in shame and disgrace, as an object lesson of what happens to a man who sets himself against God. See on 2 Kings 19:36.
Isa 37:38 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer killed him with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.
38. His sons smote him. See on 2 Kings 19:37. Although Sennacherib was permitted to return to Assyria, he did not escape a violent death. Assyrian and Babylonian records confirm the Biblical account of his assassination at the hands of his sons. It was in 681 that Sennacherib was slain and Esarhaddon began to reign. How long this was after his return is not known (see Vol. II, pp. 64, 65).