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In This Chapter 16 people 31 places 32 terms

People

Hezekiah 14 Israel 6 Isaiah 5 Rabshakeh 5 Amoz 4 Sennacherib 4 Adrammelech (2 Kings 19:37) 3 Sharezer 2 Eliakim Shebna Tirhakah Jacob (Patriarch) Jeshurun (Israel) Sargon (Sennacherib) David Esarhaddon

Places

    Key Terms

    Save (Help) 5 Holy 3 Fear 2 Passion 2 Arrow 2 Strength Fear (State) Awe (State) Fear (Terror) Fear (Reverence) Fear (Awe) Fearful Respect Respect (Among People) Trust Salvation Salvation (State) Save (Restore) Salvation (Physical) Salvation (Deliverance) Salvation (Rescuer) Save (Rescue) Salvation (Means) Saving (Means) Be Holy Holy (Pure) Holy Thing Most Holy Place Holiness Holy (Devout) Hallow Sanctuary

    Isaiah’s Message of Deliverance

    (Isaiah 37:1–7)

    1On hearing this report, King Hezekiah tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and entered the house of the LORD.

    ⓘ Leaders often asked prophets like Isaiah for guidance...

    • Leaders often asked prophets like Isaiah for guidance during emergencies (2 Kings 3:11–12) or before battles (1 Kings 22:8–10). Isaiah was active during King Hezekiah’s rule (2 Kings 20:1, 14).

    • The phrase day of distress describes the deep distress the king felt due to the insults and disgrace against God and his people. Hezekiah understood that they were powerless without God's help.

    2And he sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz 3to tell him, “This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace; for children have come to the point of birth, but there is no strength to deliver them. 4Perhaps the LORD your God will hear all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to defy the living God, and He will rebuke him for the words that the LORD your God has heard. Therefore lift up a prayer for the remnant that still survives.”

    5So the servants of King Hezekiah went to Isaiah, 6who replied, “Tell your master that this is what the LORD says: ‘Do not be afraid of the words you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. 7Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land, where I will cause him to fall by the sword.’”

    Sennacherib’s Blasphemous Letter

    (Isaiah 37:8–13)

    8When the Rabshakeh heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.

    9Now Sennacherib had been warned about Tirhakah king of Cush:† “Look, he has set out to fight against you.”

    So Sennacherib again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

    ⓘ Sennacherib's second message warned the people of Jerusalem...

    Sennacherib's second message warned the people of Jerusalem about the Assyrians' brutal victories. Everyone knew the Assyrian kings had looted, tortured, and destroyed those who opposed them (see 2 Kings 19:28). No nation, king, or god had stopped them. Facing this threat, the people should use common sense and surrender instead of trusting Hezekiah and his misleading religious devotion.

    10“Give this message to Hezekiah king of Judah:

    ‘Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you by saying that Jerusalem will not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. 11Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other countries, devoting them to destruction.† Will you then be spared? 12Did the gods of the nations destroyed by my fathers rescue those nations—the gods of Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph, and of the people of Eden in Telassar? 13Where are the kings of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”

    Hezekiah’s Prayer

    (Isaiah 37:14–20)

    ⓘ Hezekiah got Sennacherib’s disrespectful letter and took it...

    Hezekiah got Sennacherib’s disrespectful letter and took it straight to the temple of the Lord. He prayed to God with both praise (2 Kings 19:15) and requests (2 Kings 19:16–19).

    14So Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers, read it, and went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. 15And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD:

    “O LORD, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth.

    ⓘ Sennacherib's victories did not matter because, unlike the...

    Sennacherib's victories did not matter because, unlike the false gods of other nations, Yahweh was the true living God.

    16Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see. Listen to the words that Sennacherib has sent to defy the living God.

    17Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste these nations and their lands. 18They have cast their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods, but only wood and stone—the work of human hands.

    19And now, O LORD our God, please save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God.”

    Sennacherib’s Fall Prophesied

    (Isaiah 37:21–35)

    20Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria.

    ⓘ The phrase Virgin Daughter is often used to...

    The phrase Virgin Daughter is often used to describe a city or nation (Isaiah 23:12; 37:22; 47:1; Jeremiah 18:13). Here, it means that just as a young woman is saved from danger, God will save Jerusalem. The Lord's response came as a "taunt song," a common ancient Near Eastern literary form that celebrated an enemy's defeat (see Isaiah 14:3–20).

    21This is the word that the LORD has spoken against him:

    ‘The Virgin Daughter of Ziondespises you and mocks you;the Daughter of Jerusalemshakes her head behind you.22Whom have you taunted and blasphemed?Against whom have you raised your voiceand lifted your eyes in pride?Against the Holy One of Israel!
    ⓘ the heights of the mountains … of Lebanon:...

    the heights of the mountains … of Lebanon: In his records, Sennacherib described climbing high mountain passes and cutting down Lebanon's great trees. Sennacherib felt unbeatable, but he was just a man, no match for the all-knowing Lord of the universe (1 Chronicles 28:9).
    23Through your servants you have taunted the Lord,and you have said:
    “With my many chariotsI have ascendedto the heights of the mountains,to the remote peaks of Lebanon.I have cut down its tallest cedars,the finest of its cypresses.†I have reached its farthest outposts,the densest of its forests.24I have dug wellsand drunk foreign waters.With the soles of my feetI have dried up all the streams of Egypt.”
    ⓘ I have brought it to pass: God planned...

    I have brought it to pass: God planned all of Sennacherib's great accomplishments.
    25Have you not heard?Long ago I ordained it;in days of old I planned it.Now I have brought it to pass,that you should crush fortified citiesinto piles of rubble.26Therefore their inhabitants, devoid of power,are dismayed and ashamed.They are like plants in the field,tender green shoots,grass on the rooftops,scorched before it is grown.
    ⓘ I know your sitting down: See Psalms 44:21;...

    • I know your sitting down: See Psalms 44:21; 94:11.

    • My hook … and My bit: The Assyrian records describe similar harsh treatment of prisoners. The Lord would treat Sennacherib as he and his ancestors treated those they conquered.
    27But I know your sitting down,your going out and coming in,and your raging against Me.28Because your rage and arrogance against Mehave reached My ears,I will put My hook in your noseand My bit in your mouth;I will send you backthe way you came.’
    ⓘ this will be a sign: The Lord’s message...

    this will be a sign: The Lord’s message of hope included a sign that Jerusalem would be saved from the siege. The sign was God providing food. Since the Assyrians had devastated the land, people would rely on random crop growth to survive. The food supply would still be limited the following year. But by the third year, regular planting and harvesting would resume.

    29And this will be a sign to you, O Hezekiah:

    This year you will eatwhat grows on its own,and in the second yearwhat springs from the same.But in the third year you will sow and reap;you will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.30And the surviving remnant of the house of Judahwill again take root belowand bear fruit above.31For a remnant will go forth from Jerusalem,and survivors from Mount Zion.The zeal of the LORD of Hosts†will accomplish this.
    ⓘ Sennacherib's armies did not enter Jerusalem and instead...

    • Sennacherib's armies did not enter Jerusalem and instead returned home. In his own account, Sennacherib described capturing and plundering forty-six cities in Judah. He did not mention capturing Jerusalem but noted that he trapped Hezekiah "in Jerusalem … like a bird in a cage."

    • For my own honor—considering Sennacherib's disrespect and arrogance toward God (see 2 Kings 18:25, 28–30; 19:10–13, 21, 27–28)—and for the sake of my servant David, to whom God had made a covenant promise (2 Samuel 7:8–16) and whose faith Hezekiah had followed (2 Kings 18:3), the Lord would protect this city (see 2 Kings 20:6). The Lord clearly showed that he alone is God and that he is loyal to his people who trust in him.

    32So this is what the LORD says about the king of Assyria:

    ‘He will not enter this cityor shoot an arrow into it.He will not come before it with a shieldor build up a siege ramp against it.33He will go back the way he came,and he will not enter this city,declares the LORD.34I will defend this cityand save itfor My own sakeand for the sake of My servant David.’”

    Jerusalem Delivered from the Assyrians

    (2 Chronicles 32:20–23; Isaiah 37:36–38)

    35And that very night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies! 36So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.

    37One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer† put him to the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. And his son Esar-haddon reigned in his place.