Isaiah37

King Hezekiah, facing the Assyrian king Sennacherib's blasphemous threats against Jerusalem, sought the LORD through the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah delivered God's message of assurance, promising deliverance for Jerusalem and Sennacherib's eventual demise. The Angel of the LORD then smote 185,000 Assyrian soldiers, forcing Sennacherib to retreat. Years later, Sennacherib was assassinated by his own sons in Nineveh, fulfilling the divine prophecy.
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Hezekiah Seeks Counsel from Isaiah

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On hearing this report, King Hezekiah tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and entered the house of the LORD. ​
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And he sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz
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to 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. ​
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Perhaps the LORD your God will hear 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.” ​
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So the servants of King Hezekiah went to Isaiah,
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who 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. ​
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Behold, 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.’” ​

Assyria Renews the Threat

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When the Rabshakeh heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.
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Now Sennacherib had been warned about Tirhakah king of Cush: “He has set out to fight against you.” On hearing this, Sennacherib sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ​
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“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.
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Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other countries, devoting them to destruction. Will you then be spared?
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Did 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?
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Where are the kings of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”

Hezekiah's Prayer in the Temple

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So 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. ​
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And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD:
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“O LORD of Hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth. ​
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Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see. Listen to all the words that Sennacherib has sent to defy the living God.
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Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all these countries and their lands.
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They 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. ​
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And now, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God.” ​

Isaiah Delivers the Lord's Prophecy

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Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to Me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria,
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this is the word that the LORD has spoken against him: ‘The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises you and mocks you; the Daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head behind you. ​
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Whom have you taunted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel! ​
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Through your servants you have taunted the Lord, and you have said: “With my many chariots I have ascended to 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 heights, the densest of its forests.
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I have dug wells and drunk foreign waters. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.”
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Have 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 cities into piles of rubble. ​
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Therefore 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.
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But I know your sitting down, your going out and coming in, and your raging against Me.
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Because your rage and arrogance against Me have reached My ears, I will put My hook in your nose and My bit in your mouth; I will send you back the way you came.’ ​
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And this will be a sign to you, O Hezekiah: This year you will eat what grows on its own, and in the second year what springs from the same. But in the third year you will sow and reap; you will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. ​
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And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root below and bear fruit above. ​
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For a remnant will go forth from Jerusalem, and survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will accomplish this.
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So this is what the LORD says about the king of Assyria: ‘He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow into it. He will not come before it with a shield or build up a siege ramp against it. ​
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He will go back the way he came, and he will not enter this city,’ declares the LORD.
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‘I will defend this city and save it for My own sake and for the sake of My servant David.’” ​

The Lord Delivers Jerusalem

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Then 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! ​
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So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. ​
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One 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. ​

Study Notes for Isaiah 37

Verse 1

Hezekiah's actions (renting clothes, wearing sackcloth, going to the Temple) demonstrate profound spiritual distress and reliance on Yahweh, contrasting with the political maneuvering of previous kings.

Verse 3

The metaphor of the difficult birth illustrates a crisis point—Judah is at the brink of destruction, totally unable to save itself, needing immediate divine intervention.

Verse 4

Hezekiah focuses his request on the Assyrian blasphemy against the 'living God,' recognizing that the conflict is fundamentally theological, not merely military.

Verse 6

Isaiah’s response is immediate and absolute, assuring Hezekiah that the Lord will directly address the arrogance of the Assyrian king.

Verse 7

The 'blast' (often translated as 'spirit') signifies a supernatural intervention by God. This verse prophesies Sennacherib's eventual death by the sword in his homeland, which is fulfilled in verse 38.

Verse 9

Tirhakah (Taharqa) was the Pharaoh of the 25th Dynasty of Egypt (Kush/Ethiopia). This external military threat diverted Sennacherib's attention, setting up the conditions for God's eventual intervention.

Verse 14

Spreading the letter before the Lord is a profound act of faith, treating the physical threat as a direct challenge to God’s honor and submitting the crisis entirely to divine judgment.

Verse 16

Hezekiah invokes the divine name ('LORD of hosts') and specifically references God dwelling 'between the cherubims,' grounding his prayer in established covenant theology associated with the Ark of the Covenant.

Verse 19

Hezekiah contrasts the false, man-made gods of the conquered nations with the one true God, validating his claim that Yahweh alone has the power to save.

Verse 20

The ultimate goal of the prayer is not merely Judah's survival, but the vindication of Yahweh's sovereignty 'that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD, even thou only.'

Verse 22

The 'Daughter of Zion' personifies Jerusalem as a virgin protected by God, expressing contempt and scorn for the arrogant invader, Sennacherib.

Verse 23

This rhetorical question redefines Sennacherib's arrogance: his pride was directed not against Judah, but against the 'Holy One of Israel,' making his sin cosmic in scope.

Verse 26

God asserts that Assyria's military success was not due to its own strength, but was planned by Yahweh from 'ancient times' as a tool of divine judgment against other nations.

Verse 29

The imagery of the hook in the nose and bridle in the lips refers to common Assyrian practices of controlling defeated captive kings, ironically applied here by God to the Assyrian king himself.

Verse 30

This verse offers a sign of supernatural restoration and provision. The lack of planting for two years (relying on self-sown crops) signifies God’s direct care for the ravaged land and people.

Verse 31

The 'remnant' surviving the siege will be firmly established again, symbolizing physical and spiritual restoration, rooting downward and bearing fruit upward.

Verse 33

This prophecy guarantees the absolute protection of Jerusalem; the Assyrian army will not even be allowed to begin siege operations against the city walls.

Verse 35

God offers two covenantal reasons for the defense: 'for mine own sake' (to uphold divine honor) and 'for my servant David's sake' (upholding the eternal Davidic covenant).

Verse 36

The fulfillment is miraculous: 185,000 Assyrian soldiers were killed by the Angel of the Lord in a single night. This event confirmed the prophetic word and ensured Jerusalem's survival.

Verse 37

Sennacherib’s return to Nineveh marked the end of his campaign against Judah and the fulfillment of the immediate prophecy that he would not enter Jerusalem (v. 34).

Verse 38

Sennacherib’s assassination by his own sons is the final fulfillment of the prophecy given in verse 7, demonstrating that even powerful kings are subject to God’s inescapable judgment.

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