College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

Isaiah 37:21-35

4. THE PRONOUNCEMENT

Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent unto Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria,

this is the word which Jehovah hath spoken concerning him: The virgin daughter of Zion hath despised thee and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.

Whom hast thou defied and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.

By thy servants hast thou defied the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon; and I will cut down the fall cedars thereof, and the choice fir-trees thereof; and I will enter into its farthest height, the forest of its fruitful field.

I have digged and drunk water, and with the sole of my feet will I dry up all the rivers of Egypt.

Hast thou not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it of ancient times? now have I brought it to pass, that it should be thine to lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps.

Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the field, as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as a field of grain before it is grown up.

But I know thy sitting down, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy raging against me.

Because of thy raging against me, and because thine arrogancy 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.

And this shall be the sign unto thee: ye shall eat this year that which groweth of itself, and in 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.

And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.

For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and out of mount Zion they shall escape: the zeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform this.

Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come unto this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither shall he come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it.

By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and he shall not come unto this city, saith Jehovah.

For I will defend this city to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.

QUERIES

When did Jerusalem laugh Assyria to scorn?

What hook will God put in the nose of Assyria?

Did the king of Assyria come to Jerusalem or not?

PARAPHRASE

Immediately Isaiah sent this message to Hezekiah: This is what Jehovah, the God of Israel says: In answer to your prayer to Me concerning Sennacherib, king of Assyria, this is the Word of Jehovah about Sennacherib: The untouchable daughter of Zion laughs and scorns you despicable Assyrians. Jerusalem shows her disdain of you by a shake of her head. Who do you Assyrians think you are defying and mocking? At whom are you railing with your loud boasting and haughtiness? You are defying the Holy One of Israel! You have sent your aides to threaten the Lord, and they have boasted, We have come over the great mountains of Lebanon with thousands of my chariots and have plundered every nation in my path of its treasures. We have taken whatever we wanted from any nation. We have conquered and occupied many nations and dug wells for our occupation forces. Egypt with its Nile River is no obstacle to meI simply walk across it as if it were dry land. How is it you do not know that it was I, The Holy One of Israel, who decreed all of this long ago? How is it you do not acknowledge that you do what you do only by My permissive will? I have allowed you to have all this power to devastate nations and cities. This is the only reason other nations have had no power against you. This is why they were as helpless as grass and tender plants before you and as dead and used-up as the dead grass on a thatched roof. I, the Lord God, know everything you do. I know when you sit down, when you go out, when you come in, and I know every word of defiance you have uttered against me. Now because of your arrogance and challenge to My sovereignty, manifested by your intimidations toward My people, I will lead you in humility and docility back to where you came from like a bull is led with a ring in its nose or a horse is led with a bit in its mouth. And I will prove that I, The Holy One of Israel, am delivering this city by giving this sign to My people: Before the year is over the Assyrians will be gone. The time will again come when you will reap abundantly from the fruits of your toil and your enemy will not plunder your fields. It will not be immediately. It is too late now to plant your crops for this year. You will harvest first only that which comes up from volunteer seed. The next year will be about the same, due to the devastation of the land by the enemy. But in the third year you will once again sow and reap good crops from this land. Those of you who are left in Judah will be firmly established in your land again without interference from foreign occupation, and you will flourish as a nation again. For I, the Lord, have purposed to always preserve, small though it may be, a Messianic people for Myself. And because I am very zealous to fulfill My Messianic covenant, I will deliver Jerusalem from the king of Assyria. The king of Assyria will not be allowed by Jehovah to make war on Jerusalem. In fact, he will not even come to the city, but he will return to his own land by the same route he entered Palestine. I, even I, will defend this city and save it for the vindication of My Name and to fulfill the promise I made to David.

COMMENTS

Isaiah 37:21-25 DEFIANCE: Perhaps some of the details of what transpired between Hezekiah and Isaiah are omitted. Perhaps Isaiah was informed in writing or by messenger of Hezekiah's prayer. Or, perhaps God began to answer Hezekiah's prayer even as Hezekiah was praying! (cf. Daniel 9:20-23). The Lord knows our hearts and minds better than weHe is able to answer our prayer before we ask. Whatever the case, the Lord answered in a propositional, verbal message, through a messenger, Isaiah. Hezekiah was not left to try to discern the Lord's answer through a mystical feeling or through a providential fleece.

The expression, virgin (Heb. bethulath) daughter of Zion, is probably to symbolize Jerusalem's untouchableness by the Assyrian king who desires to ravish the city. Virgin is sometimes used to symbolize faithfulness. It is also used to symbolize covenant relationship between Israel and God. Amos speaks of Israel's (the northern kingdom) unfaithfulness and covenant-breaking as a fallen virgin's behavior (Amos 5:1-2; see also Ezekiel 16:1 ff). Perhaps all of this, untouchableness, faithfulness and covenant relationship, are involved in the figure virgin here. The point may be that Jerusalem, for its persistent refusal to prostitute itself to the Assyrian intimidations and dogged determination to trust faithfully in God, is being despised by its antagonists. But God promises the reversal of that. Soon, very soon, Assyria the despiser will be despised. God's promise is so certain it may be predicted as having already occurred! The proud, arrogant, powerful Assyrian king will soon return to his own land, his boasting unfulfilled, to die by assassination. For shaking of the head as a gesture of scorn, see Psalms 22:7; Psalms 109:25; Matthew 27:39.

The question of Isaiah 37:23 is rhetorical. God is not asking for information, He is challenging the arrogance of Assyria. The king of Assyria, through the servants he sent to Hezekiah, has defied the Sovereign God of the universe. Sennacherib is being warned that he is not dealing with a god of wood or stone, a provincial god of man's making. This is Almighty God, the Only True God. This is The God who holds all kings and potentates mentally and morally responsible to Himself, whether they acknowledge him or not (cf. Amos, ch. 2-3; Isaiah, ch. 13-23; Jeremiah ch. 46-51; Ezekiel, ch. 26-32; Daniel, ch. 1-6, etc.). Even in the New Testament, rulers and men of all nations are declared morally responsible to the Sovereign God, whether they believe in Him or not (cf. Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:1-29; etc.).

The Assyrian monarch boasted that nothing could stand in his way if he decided to march with his army. Not even the mountains of Lebanon (a range of mountains 20 miles long, with two of its peaks rising to over 9000 feet, and remaining snow-capped the year round) could stop him. The mountains of Lebanon formed a formidable natural barrier against invasion of Palestine. To go over the mountains was the only alternative to going across the Arabian desert for those Mesopotamian nations who wished to conquer Palestine. Chariots are made for flat open country. To move an army of chariots over forest-laden, snow-capped mountains 10,000 feet in altitude, would be no small task. But Sennacherib did it and considered such a feat proof that he could conquer any land or people he wished. Egypt's Nile River would not stop himhe would go across that as if he were walking on dry land. Hezekiah's God would not stop himhe boastedhe considered himself god of the world! Nothing could stand in his way. If it were mountains, he would cross over them; if it were the absence of water, he would dig wells and sustain his army; if it were the presence of waters, he would bridge them and take his armies across. He considered himself sovereign over all circumstances and persons. That is blasphemy!

Isaiah 37:26-29 DOWNFALL: How could the king of Assyria have heard of the predetermined plan of God to use him to waste fortified cities? Perhaps God is saying, has it never occurred to you through conscience or common sense that there is Someone greater than you controlling circumstances and lives, There is abundant evidence that God spoke or revealed His will to the ancients, including pagan rulers, in direct ways. He spoke to the Assyrians once through Jonah, the prophet. He spoke to others through dreams, visions, and prophets (cf. Daniel 1-6). He also spoke of His eternal power and deity through nature (cf. Romans 1:18-32; Acts 14:14-18; Acts 17:22-29, etc.). Whatever the case, the Assyrian nation had plenty of proof (through Jonah's demonstration of the sovereignty of Jehovah and through nature) that man does not control circumstances or destiny. God uses governments and nations as tools to carry out His sovereign purposes (cf. Jeremiah 27:5-7; Daniel, ch. 7-12; Romans 13:1-7; Rev. ch. 1-22; Isaiah 10:5-34, etc.). That the Assyrian monarch did not recognize the certainty of a Higher Power directing history, in light of all the evidence, indicates his pride overcame conscience and common sense. In other words, his unbelief was deliberate and moral. (See Special Study, Unbelief Is Deliberate, pg. 99). It was God who gave other nations into the hand of the Assyrian. They fell because God permitted it. It was the height of moral perversity for Assyria to think they controlled the world. There are men today who think by their scientific expertise (atomic or nuclear physics; genetic restructuring; space exploration) they are approaching the ability to control circumstances and destiny. That is just as intellectually dishonest and morally perverse as Sennacherib's boasting.

Whatever the king of Assyria does is not outside the knowledge of God. God knows Sennacherib's sitting down, and going out, and coming in, (cf. Psalms 11:4; Psalms 44:20-21; Psalms 139:1-12; Jeremiah 12:3; Jeremiah 17:9-10). God knows man's thoughts and deeds (John 2:23-25; Mark 9:33-35; Luke 9:46-48; Matthew 25:31-46). God knows when arrogant men rage against Him and He deals with them in His own good time (cf. Daniel 4-6). The Lord declares He will put a khakhiy (a hook for animal's noses) in the Assyrian's nose and a mitheggiy (a bridle for animals) in the Assyrian's mouth and turn him back to his own land.

The arrogancy that blasphemes must be dealt with by the Sovereign God. When a human ruler attempts usurpation of Divine sovereignty he must be brought low. God must show that He is still sovereign, so He will intervene through supernatural and providential actions to humiliate the Assyrian braggart and lead him around where God would have him to be. There are bas reliefs in ancient Assyrian monuments depicting prisoners being led by ropes attached to rings in their noses. God will put His own ring in Sennacherib's nose and lead him (slaying 185,000 soldiers, and a rumor from Nineveh that he should come home).

Isaiah 37:30-35 DELIVERANCE: One must not forget that God's central purpose in the Assyrian downfall was the deliverance of His faithful remnant and the fulfillment of His redemptive plan in them. God uses the wicked schemes of wicked men as tools to work out His redemptive purpose. When God's people became so wicked they needed chastening, He allowed the cruel Assyrians to bring them back to dependence upon Him. Now that Hezekiah has led the nation in a turning back to God, He will punish the arrogant boasting of the Assyrian (cf. Isaiah 10:5-34) as further evidence of His power to fulfill His redemptive program.

Isaiah is predicting a complete removal of the Assyrians from the land of Palestinenot just a temporary let-up of the siege of Jerusalem. The massiveness of the Assyrian army, its need to live off the land it occupied and its complete disregard for life or property would have brought unparalleled devastation to the agricultural and economic situation of Palestine! The Assyrians had conquered 46 cities of Judah and had ravaged the whole land except Jerusalem. He had been there for more than a year. But Isaiah predicts the Assyrian will be gone and as soon as can be expected, the people left in Judah will be reaping and harvesting their own crops again. There will be no miraculous, immediate restoration of the agricultural-economic prosperity. For the immediate year and the one following the people will suffer the effects of the Assyrian devastation of their land; that is, they will eat from crops produced by volunteer seed for the first two years. There would not be enough harvest for two years to provide seed for a full sowing. But the third year would see agriculture returned to its normal processes. That would signify to them God had delivered them from the Assyrian.
The remnant will be saved. God has always carried out His work with a left-over segment of mankind. The cosmic work of redemption has always been trusted to a minority. It will not be any different when God closes the historical, human part of this work. The New Testament indicates the way that leads to life is strait and narrow and few will find it. The majority will be found, at any time, on the broad way that leads to destruction. Great men like Isaiah and Hezekiah were able to persuade a few to trust God and make themselves available to Him that He might bring the Messiah into the world. The remnant of this faithful few can be traced throughout the Old Testament right up to Mary, the mother of Jesus.

The zeal (kineath, in Hebrew) of the Lord will accomplish this (see comments on Isaiah 9:7). The Lord is jealous for His own work and His own people. He is jealous for His own sovereignty, so He will not let the king of Assyria carry out his boast to ravage Jerusalem. In fact, God will not even permit the king of Assyria to come to the city. No siege mound will be built up surrounding Jerusalem by the Assyrians. God is going to save it to vindicate His own power and fulfill His promise to David (2 Samuel 7:12, etc.). This is quite a prediction by Isaiah in view of the fact that the Assyrians at that moment controlled all of Palestine except the immediate city of Jerusalem! But if God is for us, who can be against us?! (cf. Romans 8:28-39).

QUIZ

What does the use of the term virgin mean in reference to Jerusalem?

Why does God ask Sennacherib who he thinks he is raging against?

How would God expect the king of Assyria to hear of His sovereignty?

Why did God have to put a hook in the nose of the Assyrian?

What is the sign that God had delivered Palestine from the Assyrians?

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