Isaiah 37:1-38
1 And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.
2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth, unto Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.
3 And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy:a for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.
4 It may be the LORD thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left.b
5 So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
6 And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say unto your master, Thus saith the LORD, Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
7 Behold, I will sendc a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
8 So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.
9 And he heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He is come forth to make war with thee. And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
10 Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
11 Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by destroying them utterly; and shalt thou be delivered?
12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Telassar?
13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?
14 And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up unto the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.
15 And Hezekiah prayed unto the LORD, saying,
16 O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and earth.
17 Incline thine ear, O LORD, and hear; open thine eyes, O LORD, and see: and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent to reproach the living God.
18 Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations,d and their countries,
19 And have caste their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them.
20 Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD, even thou only.
21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent unto Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria:
22 This is the word which the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.
23 Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.
24 By thy servants hast thou reproached the Lord, and hast said, By the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon; and I will cut down the tall cedars thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the height of his border, and the forest of his Carmel.
25 I have digged, and drunk water; and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of the besieged places.
26 Hast thou not heard long ago, how I have done it; and of ancient times, that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste defenced cities into ruinous heaps.
27 Therefore their inhabitants were of smallf power, they were dismayed and confounded: they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up.
28 But I know thy abode,g and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.
29 Because thy rage against me, and thy tumult, is come up into mine ears, therefore will I put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.
30 And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such as groweth of itself; and the second year that which springeth of the same: and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof.
31 And the remnanth that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward:
32 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.
33 Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it.
34 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD.
35 For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.
36 Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.
38 And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Armenia:i and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.
Isaiah 37:3. This is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy. What moral idea can we form of a conqueror? A man hailed, adored, and applauded by the world. History is full of his fame, and monuments are loaded with his glory. His ambition is without bounds: “he saith, I will cut off nations not a few.” And what idea must he have of the loss of his own army; the finest men of his nation, and fully equipped for war. Assuredly, he calculates the lives of men as merchants count their gold. And perishing in war, like Sennacherib and Rabshakeh, how must he live with the countless myriads of souls which he sent to the shades below? To say nothing of the anger of an avenging God, all the anguish which murdered multitudes can inflict on the spirit of a culprit, will await him in the shades of death. If the blasphemy of those men let loose on earth, and the reins launched to every lawless passion, horrified good men; what must the recoil of that blasphemy be among the damned?
When Isaiah saw the storm coming, for the seers had enlightened eyes, he blew the trumpet like a watchman, and cried, “He is come to Ajath, he is advanced to Migron. At Michmash he has laid up his carriages; they have crossed the river, they have encamped at Geba. Ramah, the soul of Gibeah, is fled. Lift up thy voice, oh daughter of Gallim; cause it to be heard to Laish. Oh poor Anathoth! Madmenah is removed. The inhabitants of Gebim assemble for flight.” Isaiah 10:28.
Isaiah 37:4. It may be the Lord thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh. King Hezekiah took a wise course; he spread the letter of Sennacherib before the Lord, and pleaded the promises of divine protection. A fine example for us to follow. This was better than reliance on the bruised reed of Egypt.
Isaiah 37:25. I have digged, and drunk [strange] waters. 2 Kings 19:24. In the sandy deserts, the cattle can smell water underground, and will thrust their noses into the sands. John Campbell's Travels in South Africa. In like cases, the Assyrian armies must have dug wide pits, and obtained supplies of water.
Isaiah 37:29. I will put my hook in thy nose, as rings are put in the nose of camels, bears, buffaloes, and unruly bulls.
Isaiah 37:36. Then the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand. Who would set the thorns and the briars in battle against Omnipotence? This stroke of the arm of heaven is six times recorded in the sacred writings; in the books of Kings and Chronicles as above; and three times in the Apocrypha. It is recorded by Herodotus, the father of Grecian history, in his second book. Euterpe. The stalking pride of atheism can find no footing here. This Angel, according to the prophet Hosea, was Jehovah; the Angel, as in Genesis 22:16; Genesis 32:30; Isaiah 63:7; Isaiah 63:16. His words are,
To the house of Judah I will be tenderly merciful,
And I will save them by Jehovah their God:
And I will not save them by the bow,
Nor by the sword, nor by battle;
By horses, nor by horsemen. Hosea 1:7 .
Lowth's Version.
Isaiah 37:38. Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword. In this war, God's sword had two edges. It smote the nations of the west, and the Assyrians after they had wickedly done his strange work. Sennacherib, the greatest offender, received the most distinguished punishment. He who set Jehovah at defiance was deceived by his gods! He who thought to burn the temple of the Lord, perished in his own temple! His sins pursued him to the last retreats of conscience, and mercy spurned him from her bar.
REFLECTIONS.
What a day of trouble to Judah! What a day of anguish to Hezekiah and his ministers! They had heard Rabshakeh class JEHOVAH with the gods of the gentiles, and set him at defiance; and yet no fire went forth from the Lord to consume, nor did the earth open her mouth to swallow him up. They saw all Asia from Armenia to India in his power, while Jerusalem only and a few small cities dared to resist. It seemed for the time as though the age of the furies was come, and that heaven had granted permission for the powers of darkness to reign on earth.
When we are unable to stem the torrent of wickedness, let us keep silence, and weep for what we hear. Thus good Hezekiah and his ministers rent their robes for the blasphemy they had heard, and with fasting and prayer sought the salvation of God. Happy for Judah in this day of trouble that the idols had been recently destroyed; happy that there was a prophet, and a synagogue of righteous men in Jerusalem; and happy that there was a king whose heart was inclined to seek the Lord, and to consult his prophets.
Promises and encouragements from the Lord, and especially in the day of trouble, are doubly precious, and should be embraced by faith. So Hezekiah, more encouraged by the prophet's declaration, than intimidated by Rabshakeh's blasphemy, went into the temple and spread this letter before his God. He acknowledged the presence of the Lord, dwelling between the cherubims; he magnified him above all the gods, and besought him to save in the evil day.
God sends a speedy answer to the prayer which is offered up in faith and piety. Besides the interior sweetness conveyed to the soul of the weeping king, Isaiah was inspired to console him with a message of triumph. The calamity being public, God was pleased thus to compose the public mind. The whole character of the answer is a retort of pious scorn. It is the vaunting of a mortal confounded by the boasting of a God. While this vain king was swelled to heaven with the pride of trampling on nations, and burning their gods, the Lord reproaches him with impious ignorance in not knowing that nations have withered as the grass; and he assures him, that he would now put a ring in his nose as an unruly camel, and lead him back most disgracefully to Nineveh, where he should receive, not the homage of a divinity, but the punishment of an execrated tyrant. And farther, that heaven made so little an account of his boasting, as not to allow him to shoot one feeble arrow against the bulwarks of Jerusalem. How happy is the nation which seeks its protection under the wings of the sanctuary! And God was faithful to his word. Sennacherib, hearing that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, was approaching, raised the siege of Libnah, and advanced with his whole army against Jerusalem; and the first night he sat down before the city, behold, the angel of the Lord, who for Israel's sake had slain the firstborn of Egypt, once more stretched forth his hand, and slew that very night one hundred and eighty five thousand of his army. What a stroke was this from the hand of the Lord! Are these the men who have half swept the earth of its inhabitants? Now they are slaughtered in turn. Are these the men who have plundered the nations, and forced Hezekiah to spoil the temple for gold? Behold they have brought back the fruit of their wickedness, and been compelled to disgorge it at the Lord's feet. Are these the men who compared JEHOVAH to the gods of the gentiles, and said he could not defend his city? Behold, he bids an angel touch their flesh, and in the morning they are all dead corpses. There is but a remnant spared to tell the nations of the east the terrors of his name. See the notes on 2 Chronicles 32.