Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

Isaiah 37

Isaiah Assures Deliverance

Isaiah 37:¹ And so it was, when King Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ).

Isaiah 37:² Then he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.

• Isaiah’s wife is a prophetess, albeit unnamed.

Isaiah 37:³ And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah: ‘This day is a day of trouble and rebuke and blasphemy (contempt); for the children have come to birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth.

Isaiah 37:⁴ It may be that the Lord your God (Yᵊhōvâ ‘ĕlōhîm) will hear the words of the Rabshakeh (field commander, literally “chief of the princes”), whom his master the king of Assyria (Sennacherib) has sent to reproach the living God (‘ĕlōhîm), and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God (Yᵊhōvâ ‘ĕlōhîm) has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’ ”

Isaiah 37:⁵ So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

And Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ): “Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria (Sennacherib) have blasphemed Me.

Isaiah 37:⁷ Surely I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.” ’ ”

Sennacherib’s Threat and Hezekiah’s Prayer

Isaiah 37:⁸ Then the Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he heard that he had departed from Lachish.

Isaiah 37:⁹ And the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “He has come out to make war with you.” So when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

Isaiah 37:¹⁰ “Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying: ‘Do not let your God (‘ĕlōhîm) in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”

Isaiah 37:¹¹ Look! You have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by utterly destroying them; and shall you be delivered?

Isaiah 37:¹² Have the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar (Susa)?

Isaiah 37:¹³ Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?’ ”

Isaiah 37:¹⁴ And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ), and spread it before the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ).

Isaiah 37:¹⁵ Then Hezekiah prayed to the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ), saying:

Isaiah 37:¹⁶ “O Lord of hosts (Yᵊhōvâ ṣāḇā’), God (‘ĕlōhîm) of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God (‘ĕlōhîm), You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.

Isaiah 37:¹⁷ Incline Your ear, O Lord (Yᵊhōvâ), and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord (Yᵊhōvâ), and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God (‘ĕlōhîm).

Isaiah 37:¹⁸ Truly, Lord (Yᵊhōvâ), the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, ¹⁹ and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands—wood and stone. Therefore they destroyed them.

Isaiah 37:²⁰ Now therefore, O Lord our God (Yᵊhōvâ ‘ĕlōhîm), save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ), You alone.”

The Word of the Lord Concerning Sennacherib

Isaiah 37:²¹ Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord God (Yᵊhōvâ ‘ĕlōhîm) of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria,

• Hezekiah was a good king who relied on God therefore God acted on not only the sake of God’s Own Name, but for the sake of a faithful Hezekiah and God’s chosen people.

Isaiah 37:²² this is the word which the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) has spoken concerning him:

“The virgin, the daughter of Zion,
Has despised you, laughed you to scorn;
The daughter of Jerusalem
Has shaken her head behind your back!

• God is calling Zion a “virgin” for not worshiping idols.
  (In Revelation 14:4 there are 144,000 young virgin Jewish men who are sealed. In this vein of thought, they would be 144,000 young Jewish men who have not worshiped the “beast”.

Isaiah 37:²³ “Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice,
And lifted up your eyes on high?
Against the Holy One of Israel.

• Sennecherib’s messenger blasphemed the God of Heaven.

Isaiah 37:²⁴ By your servants you have reproached the Lord (‘ăḏōnāy),
And said, ‘By the multitude of my chariots
I have come up to the height of the mountains,
To the limits of Lebanon;
I will cut down its tall cedars
And its choice cypress trees;
I will enter its farthest height,
To its fruitful forest.

Isaiah 37:²⁵ I have dug and drunk water,
And with the soles of my feet I have dried up
All the brooks of defense (Or perhaps Egypt) .’

Isaiah 37:²⁶ “Did you not hear long ago
How I made it,
From ancient times that I formed it?
Now I have brought it to pass,
That you should be
For crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins.

Isaiah 37:²⁷ Therefore their inhabitants had little power;
They were dismayed and confounded;
They were as the grass of the field
And the green herb,
As the grass on the housetops
And grain blighted before it is grown.

Isaiah 37:²⁸ “But I know your dwelling place,
Your going out and your coming in,
And your rage against Me.

• When you fight against Jerusalem, you rage against God

Isaiah 37:²⁹ Because your rage against Me and your tumult
Have come up to My ears,
Therefore I will put My hook in your nose
And My bridle in your lips,
And I will turn you back
By the way which you came.” ’

• God is dealing with Sennacherib as He does with Satan who is described in scripture as a sea monster who swims in the sea of people – The Leviathan.
• Job 41:¹ “Can you draw out Leviathan with a hook,
  Or snare his tongue with a line which you lower?
  ² Can you put a reed through his nose,
  Or pierce his jaw with a hook (thorn).

The crown of thorns defeated the Leviathan

• The same with the Battle of Gog and Magog:
• Ezekiel 38:⁴ I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and lead you out, with all your army, horses, and horsemen, all splendidly clothed, a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords.

• Moral of the Story: God is in control of Sennecherib, Satan, and Gog.

Isaiah 37:³⁰ “This shall be a sign to you:

You shall eat this year such as grows of itself,
And the second year what springs from the same;
Also in the third year sow and reap,
Plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.

Isaiah 37:³¹ And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah
Shall again take root downward,
And bear fruit upward.

Isaiah 37:³² For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant,
And those who escape from Mount Zion.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts (Yᵊhōvâ ṣāḇā’) will do this.

Isaiah 37:³³ “Therefore thus says the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) concerning the king of Assyria:

‘He shall not come into this city,
Nor shoot an arrow there,
Nor come before it with shield,
Nor build a siege mound against it.

Isaiah 37:³⁴ By the way that he came,
By the same shall he return;
And he shall not come into this city,’
Says the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ).

Isaiah 37:³⁵ ‘For I will defend this city, to save it
For My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’ ”

• A reminder: The battle belongs to the Lord!

Sennacherib’s Defeat and Death

• A recent discovery in Israel may corroborate an epic biblical account of an angel of the Lord wiping out 185,000 Assyrian soldiers, an independent scholar claims. Stephen Compton, an independent scholar specializing in Near Eastern archaeology, utilized a modern mapping technique to find the discovery of, what he believes, are ancient Assyrian military camps, from circa 700 BC. The discovery, which is also detailed in Assyrian texts, Greek histories and the Hebrew Bible, could verify the biblical account of II Kings 19:35; Isaiah 37: 36-38 and II Chronicles, 32:21.
• While the archaeological evidence discovered by Compton does not confirm the supernatural aspects of the Biblical narrative, it does provide compelling support for the historical presence of Assyrian military forces near Jerusalem during Sennacherib’s reign.
• 

Isaiah 37:³⁶ Then the angel (Or Angel aka Messenger) of the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) went out, and killed (Lit. struck) in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand (185,000); and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses—all dead.

Isaiah 37:³⁷ So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh.

Isaiah 37:³⁸ Now it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat (Turkey). Then Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

• After Sennacherib saw what the God of Israel had done-he returns to worship a non-god.

• Nisroch the “non-god” of Sennacherib

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• Sennacherib was worshiping “his own god” when he was killed by “his own sons”. His god did not protect him from his sons. Sennacherib was destroyed by “His own”.

• The Moral of the Story: God protects His reputation.
• The messenger of king Sennacherib did not recognize ALL the “gods” of other nations were no gods at all, but the God of Judah is the God who created the heavens and the earth, the ONLY God.

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• “After Sennacherib’s assassination, Esarhaddon took the throne and defeated his brother’s factions in a six-week civil war. He then had his brother’s families and associates executed. Once his rule was secure he issued new decrees and proclamations; among the first of these was that Babylon should be restored.”
• Sennacherib – World History Encyclopedia