Isaiah 37

Chapter context

What is happening in Isaiah 37?

holinessjudgmentremnantmessiah

Isaiah 37 belongs to the middle movement of the book, especially the section often described as comfort and the servant songs. Isaiah is one of Scripture’s grandest prophetic books, moving from holy judgment to consolation, servant imagery, and new-creation hope. Read this chapter with the wider themes of holiness, judgment, and remnant in view so the individual verses keep their proper weight.

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: 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. 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 send 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, and their countries, ¹⁹ And have cast 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 small 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, 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 remnant 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: and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

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Glossary

Hezekiah Person v. 1, 3, 5, 9-10, 14-15, 21: Whom Jehovah has strengthened. (1. ) Son of Ahaz ( 2 Kings 18:1 ; 2 Chr. 29:1 ), whom he succeeded on the throne of the kingdom of Judah. He reigned twenty-nine years (B. C. 726-697).
Sackcloth People v. 1-2: Cloth made of black goats’ hair, coarse, rough, and thick, used for sacks, and also worn by mourners ( Gen. 37:34 ; 42:25 ; 2 Sam. 3:31 ; Esther 4:1 , 2; Ps. 30:11 , etc. ), and as a sign of repentance ( Matt. 11:21 ).
Amoz Person v. 2, 21: Strong, the father of the prophet Isaiah ( 2 Kings 19:2 , 20; 20:1; Isa. 1:1 ; 2:1 ). As to his personal history little is positively known. He is supposed by some to have been the “man of God” spoken of in 2 Chr. 25:7 , 8.
Eliakim Person v. 2: Whom God will raise up. (1. ) The son of Melea ( Luke 3:30 ), and probably grandson of Nathan. (2. ) The son of Abiud, of the posterity of Zerubbabel ( Matt. 1:13 ).
Isaiah Person v. 2, 5-6, 21: (Heb. Yesh’yahu, i. e., “the salvation of Jehovah”). (1. ) The son of Amoz ( Isa. 1:1 ; 2:1 ), who was apparently a man of humble rank.
Assyria Place v. 4, 6, 8, 10-11, 18, 21, 33, 37-38: Biblical region. Modern identification: Nineveh.
Jerusalem Place v. 8-10, 22, 32-33: Biblical settlement. Modern identification: Jerusalem.
Lachish Place v. 8: Biblical settlement. Modern identification: Tell ed Duweir.
Libnah Place v. 8: Biblical settlement. Modern identification: Tell Bornat.
Cush Place v. 9: Country of burnt faces; the Greek word by which the Hebrew Cush is rendered. Modern identification: Meroe.
Eden Place v. 12: Biblical region. Modern identification: Til Barsip.
Gozan Place v. 12: A region in Central Asia to which the Israelites were carried away captive ( 2 Kings 17:6 ; 1 Chr. 5:26 ; 2 Kings 19:12 ; Isa. 37:12 ). Modern identification: Tell Halaf.
Haran Place v. 12: Biblical settlement. Modern identification: Harran.
Rezeph Place v. 12: Biblical settlement. Modern identification: Resafa.
Telassar Place v. 12: Or Thelasar, ( Isa. 37:12 ; 2 Kings 19:12 ), a province in the south-east of Assyria, probably in Babylonia. Some have identified it with Tel Afer, a place in Mesopotamia, some 30 miles from Sinjar. Modern identification: Til Barsip.
Arpad Place v. 13: Biblical settlement. Modern identification: Tell Rifat.
City People v. 13, 33-35: The earliest mention of city-building is that of Enoch, which was built by Cain ( Gen. 4:17 ). After the confusion of tongues, the descendants of Nimrod founded several cities (10:10-12).
Hamath Place v. 13: Biblical settlement. Modern identification: Hama.
Hena Place v. 13: Biblical settlement. Modern identification: Anah.
Ivvah Place v. 13: Overturning, a city of the Assyrians, whence colonists were brought to Samaria ( 2 Kings 18:34 ; 19:13 ). It lay on the Euphrates, between Sepharvaim and Henah, and is supposed by some to have been the Ahava of Ezra (8:15). Modern identification: Kafr Aya.
Sepharvaim Place v. 13: Biblical settlement. Modern identification: between Damascus and Hamath.
Sennacherib Person v. 17, 21, 37: Sin (the god) sends many brothers, son of Sargon, whom he succeeded on the throne of Assyria (B. C. 705), in the 23rd year of Hezekiah.
Zion Place v. 22: Biblical settlement. Modern identification: Jerusalem.
Lebanon Place v. 24: Biblical region. Modern identification: Jezzine.
Mount Carmel Place v. 24: Biblical mountain. Modern identification: Mount Carmel.
Egypt Place v. 25: The land of the Nile and the pyramids, the oldest kingdom of which we have any record, holds a place of great significance in Scripture. Modern identification: Ain Shams.
Mount Zion Place v. 32: Biblical hill. Modern identification: Mount Zion.
Nineveh Place v. 37: Biblical settlement. Modern identification: Nineveh.
Adrammelech Person v. 38: Adar the king. (1. ) An idol; a form of the sun-god worshipped by the inhabitants of Sepharvaim ( 2 Kings 17:31 ), and brought by the Sepharvite colonists into Samaria.
Ararat Place v. 38: Sacred land or high land, the name of a country on one of the mountains of which the ark rested after the Flood subsided ( Gen. 8:4 ). The “mountains” mentioned were probably the Kurdish range of South Armenia. Modern identification: Urartu.
Sharezer Person v. 38: (god) protect the king!, a son of Sennacherib, king of Assyria. He and his brother Adrammelech murdered their father, and then fled into the land of Armenia ( 2 Kings 19:37 ).