2 Kings 19:8-34

C. SENNACHERIB'S SECOND SURRENDER DEMAND 19:8-34

By means of a personal letter to Hezekiah King Sennacherib intensified the pressure to secure the surrender of Jerusalem (2 Kings 19:8-13). This new development sent Hezekiah to the Temple and to his knees in prayer (2 Kings 19:14-19). Because of this letter, Isaiah delivered a more lengthy oracle promising the safety of Jerusalem (2 Kings 19:20-34).

1. THE LETTER OF SENNACHERIB (2 Kings 19:8-13)

TRANSLATION

(8) So Rab-shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish. (9) And he heard concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, saying, Behold he has gone out to fight with you. And he sent messengers unto Hezekiah, saying, (10)Thus say unto Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Do not let your God in whom you are trusting deceive you, say ing, Do not give Jerusalem into the hand of the king of Assyria. (11) Behold you certainly have heard that which the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, utterly destroying them, and shall you surely escape? (12) Have the gods of the nations which my fathers destroyed delivered themGozan, and Haran and Rezeph and the children of Edom which are in Thelasar? (13) Where is the king of Hamath and the king of Arpad and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena and Ivah?

COMMENTS

Failing in his mission to secure the surrender of Jerusalem, Rab-shakeh returned to his master. Sennacherib successfully had taken Lachish and was at that time warring against Libnah, the exact location of which is uncertain (2 Kings 19:8). When the Assyrian king heard that the Ethiopian general Tirhakah was marching against him, he knew that he might be forced to make a strategic retreat from Palestine. For this reason he made one last effort to bring about the immediate surrender and consequent punishment of Hezekiah. Messengers were dispatched to Jerusalem (2 Kings 19:9) who, in accord with the custom of that day, carried a written communication which would first be read aloud and then handed over to the recipient, in this case Hezekiah.

Sennacherib's letter suggested that Hezekiah had been deceived by the prophets of God who were promising that Jerusalem would be delivered from the hand of Assyria (2 Kings 19:10). It reminded Hezekiah of the fact that every other nation which had tried to match might with Assyria had been utterly crushed. How then could Hezekiah entertain any hope of deliverance? (2 Kings 19:11). As if to underscore this point, Sennacherib rattled off a list of Assyrian conquests: Gozan, Haran, Rezeph and the children of Eden, i.e., the inhabitants of the city called Bit-Adini located in the region of Thelasar, i.e., the hill or fort of Asshur. All of these Aramean cities had fallen according to Assyrian records over a century prior to this attack against Jerusalem (2 Kings 19:12). More recent conquests over the king of Hamath, Arpad and the kings of the cities of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivah were also mentioned (cf. 2 Kings 18:34).

2. THE PRAYER OF HEZEKIAH (2 Kings 19:14-19)

TRANSLATION

(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, and spread it before the LORD. (15) And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said, O LORD God of Israel who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, to all kingdoms of the earth; You surely have made the heavens and the earth. (16) O LORD, incline Your ears and hear! Open Your eyes, O LORD, and see, and hearken to the words of Sennacherib which he has sent to revile the living God. (17) Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have made desolate the nations and their lands, (18) and they have thrown their gods into the fire, for they are not gods, but the work of the hands of men, wood and stone; therefore, they have destroyed them. (19) And now, O LORD our God, deliver us, I pray you, from his hand, that all kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the LORD, God alone.

COMMENTS

Hezekiah received the letter from the Assyrian messengers and, when he had read it, took it to the Temple and spread it before the Lord. By this action, Hezekiah, as it were, laid his evidence before the Judge of all the earth (2 Kings 19:14). Then the king prayed. He addressed God as the One who dwells between the cherubim, i.e., in the Holy of Holies of the Temple. But he went beyond that, addressing the Lord as universal God, Creator of heaven and earth (2 Kings 19:15). Petition followed praise in this lovely prayer. Hezekiah called upon God to take cognizance with both eye and ear, i.e., take full cognizance, of that which Sennacherib had now dared to do. The Assyrian had directly challenged the authority and power of the living God! (2 Kings 19:16).

In his prayer, Hezekiah admitted that the Assyrian monarchs had an impressive list of conquests to their credit (2 Kings 19:17). The gods of these numerous conquered nations had been carried off as trophies of war and had, on occasion, been burned as worthless. But this only proved that the gods of the nations were nothing but the creation of man's hands. Gods of wood and stone could not help themselves let alone their worshipers. It was no wonder then that these deities had been destroyed (2 Kings 19:18). But Yahweh the God of Israel was not to be put in the same category with the idols of men. The living God was our God. He was bound to Israel by a covenant. For this reason Hezekiah called upon the Lord to intervene and save His people from the blasphemous invader. But the king's prayer went beyond mere parochialism. He prayed for such a dramatic act of vengeance against Sennacherib, not so much for the sake of Israel, as for the vindication of God's honor among the nations of the earth. He did not desire that Yahweh would be acknowledged as a mighty God, but as the only mighty God in all the earth (2 Kings 19:19). God's people desire nothing so much as that His glory should be recognized in ever widening circles.

3. THE ORACLE OF ISAIAH (2 Kings 19:20-34)

4. TRANSLATION

(20) And Isaiah the son of Amoz sent unto Hezekiah, saying, Thus says the LORD the God of Israel: That which you have prayed unto Me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard. (21) This is the word which the LORD has spoken concerning him: The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you, laughed at you; the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head after you. (22) Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised a voice and lifted your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel! (23) By your messengers you have reproached the Lord and you have said, With the multitude of my chariots I have gone up to the height of the mountains, to the extremities of Lebanon, and will cut down its tall cedars, the choice of its cypress trees, and I will enter the lodge of its borders, the forest of its Carmel. (24) I have dug and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet I have dried up all the rivers of besieged places. (25) Have you not heard from afar that I have done it, from ancient days that I formed it? Now I have brought it to pass that you should lay waste fortified cities as ruinous heaps. (26) And their inhabitants were of small power, they were confounded and dismayed; they were as the grass of the field and as the green herb, as the grass of roof tops, blighted before it has grown up. (27) But your abode, your going out and your coming in, I know; and your raging against Me. (28) Because your raging against Me and your arrogancy has come up into My ears, therefore I will put My hook in your nose and My bridle in your lips, and I will cause you to return in the way in which you came. (29) And this will be a sign for you: You shall eat this year the things which grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springs from it; but in the third year you shall sow, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. (30) And the remnant of the house of Judah who remain shall again take root downward and produce fruit upward. (31) For from Jerusalem a remnant shall go out, and they who escape from Mt. Zion. The zeal of the LORD shall perform this. (32) Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come unto this city, nor shall he shoot there an arrow, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a mound against it. (33) In the way which he came, he shall return, and unto this city he shall not come (oracle of the LORD). (34) For I will defend this city to save it for My sake and for the sake of David My servant.

COMMENTS

As Hezekiah prayed, Isaiah was made cognizant of his prayer through divine revelation, and the prophet was instructed to answer it favorably. In accordance with his high status as God's representative, Isaiah sent the message to Hezekiah rather than taking it himself. First of all, Hezekiah was assured that God had heard his prayer (2 Kings 19:20). The answer itself follows in fourteen verses, which, according to Rawlinson, are arranged in four stanzas.

The first stanza (2 Kings 19:21-24) is addressed to Sennacherib. The tone here is one of scorn and contempt. The prophet pictured Jerusalem personified as a fragile virgin daughter laughing at the threats of Sennacherib and contemptuously wagging her head at the once ominous monarch (2 Kings 19:21). Does this Assyrian know who it is that he had blasphemed and lifted up his eyes on high, i.e., looked down upon? It is none other than the Holy One of Israel (2 Kings 19:22). By the boisterous and blasphemous conduct of Rab-shakeh and his other servants, Sennacherib had reviled Yahweh. Furthermore, he had offended the Lord by the proud thoughts within his heart. Isaiah attributes to Sennacherib the impossible dream of taking his huge chariot force into the most remote areas of Lebanon and cutting down the magnificent trees there to be taken back to the woodless plain of Assyria. The lodge of its borders may refer to some palace in the vicinity of the Lebanon forest region. The forest of its Carmel probably refers to the choicest part of the Lebanon forest (2 Kings 19:23). Mountains cannot stop the mighty Sennacherib, nor can deserts either. He digs wells in them, and drinks water strange to the soilnever before seen there. If rivers try to stop him, he will find a way of drying them up (2 Kings 19:24). Thus the essential thrust of 2 Kings 19:23-24 is that no natural barrier can stand in the way of this mighty king.

The second stanza of the oracle (2 Kings 19:25-28) is again addressed to the proud Assyrian ruler. Was this king so ignorant that he did not realize that Yahweh was the One who determined the rise and fall of kingdoms? Long ago the Almighty planned the Assyrian conquests; more recently He had brought these plans to fruition, thus enabling Sennacherib to lay waste fortified cities (2 Kings 19:25). This was the reason that the peoples of the world were not able to make effectual resistance to the Assyrian advance. God had placed a terrible fear within the hearts of the peoples whom the Assyrians attacked. These peoples had been as weak as grass which swiftly withers in the face of the hot Eastern sun; or as frail as grain which contacts some disease and dwindles without even asserting itself (2 Kings 19:26).

The omniscient God of Israel knew every movement of Sennacherib and every thought of his heart. He knew of the rage of the Great King against Hezekiah and against the God in whom Hezekiah put his trust (2 Kings 19:27). Because this rage and arrogancy had come to the attention of Yahweh, He would take action against the Assyrian. He would treat Sennacherib just as Assyrian Kings were wont to treat their captives. He would force a hook through his nose and a bridle through his lips. Assyrian monuments depict captives being led into the king's presence by means of ropes attached to rings which had been forced through the cartilage of the nose or through the fleshy part of the lower lip. The threat here is not to be taken literally, but only as a declaration that God would humble this proud king and reduce him to a state of abject abasement. God would turn him back. Sennacherib would not be allowed to come near Jerusalem. He would be forced to return home hastily along the same route by which he had entered Palestine (2 Kings 19:28).

2 Kings 19:29 introduces the third stanza (2 Kings 19:29-31). Here the prophet turned from Sennacherib to Hezekiah, and proceeded to give him a sign. In this case the prediction of a near event became the pledge or evidence that God would keep His word with regard to a prediction more distant. Since the Assyrians had come in the spring of the year, the Jews had not been able to plant their crops that year. They would be forced to eat such things as grow of themselves, i.e., such grain as might be found growing in the unsown fields. The next yearprobably a sabbatical yearthey would have to do the same.[619] But in the third year things would return to normal. The sign was not given with reference to the departure of Sennacherib which belonged to the first year, but with reference to the promise that Jerusalem would be free from any further attack on his part. Sennacherib reigned twenty-four years, but never again after 701 B.C. did he come to harass Jerusalem (2 Kings 19:29).

[619] Finley (BBC, p. 486) suggests that the loss in human and natural resources to the Assyrians would be so great that it would be necessary to depend in the second year on such grain as was found in unsown fields.

The gracious promises to Hezekiah continue in 2 Kings 19:30-31. The remnant which had escaped deportation and death at the hands of Sennacherib would again be firmly fixed and established in their land, like a tree that puts forth its roots deeply into the ground. That remnant would once again bear fruit, i.e., exhibit all the outward signs of prosperity (2 Kings 19:30). Those who had taken refuge in Jerusalem during the emergency would gladly go forth to reclaim and recultivate their lands. From the human point of view such a prospect seemed dim indeed at the time Isaiah compiled this oracle, but the zeal of the Lord, i.e., His zealous love and concern for His people, would bring about this restoration to prosperity and glory (2 Kings 19:31).

The fourth stanza of Isaiah's oracle is a general announcement addressed to all who might be concerned with the present distress. Sennacherib would not come unto Jerusalem to besiege that city. Such operations generally began with a barrage of arrows to clear the walls of defenders. Then the enemy would advance on the walls under the protection of huge shields in order to raise scaling ladders, undermine the walls or set fire to the gates. As a last resort the attackers would build a bank of earth on an incline up to the wall and plant upon them their battering rams for the purpose of making a breach in the walls. But Jerusalem would witness none of those terrible actions (2 Kings 19:32). Sennacherib would be forced to leave off operations in Palestine and retrace his steps to his homeland. He would not, the prophet again emphatically declared, come unto the city of Jerusalem (2 Kings 19:33). God would defend that city because His own honor was at stake, especially in view of the taunts of Sennacherib. Also God would intervene in defense of Jerusalem because of the great love which He had toward David (2 Kings 19:34).