2 Kings 19

This chapter belongs to the closing portion of 2 Kings, within the account of the kings of Judah. It continues the narrative of 2 Kings 18, in which the Assyrian officer known as the Rabshakeh mocked God before the walls of Jerusalem. Nearly identical material appears in Isaiah 37, and an abridged account appears in 2 Chronicles 32.

Outline

• Verses 1–7 Hezekiah tears his clothes, puts on sackcloth (a coarse cloth worn as a sign of mourning and repentance), and goes into the temple. He sends Eliakim, Shebna, and the elders of the priests to Isaiah, who tells them not to be afraid and declares that the king of Assyria will hear a rumor, return home, and fall by the sword in his own land.
• Verses 8–13 The Rabshakeh returns to the king, who is fighting at Libnah. Hearing that Tirhakah king of Ethiopia has come out against him, the king of Assyria again sends messengers, warning that the gods of no nation have been able to deliver their lands.
• Verses 14–19 Hezekiah spreads the letter before the LORD in the temple and prays that God, who alone made heaven and earth, would save them so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know Him.
• Verses 20–28 Isaiah delivers God's answer. He rebukes the pride of the king of Assyria, declares that even his conquests were ordained by the LORD, and announces that the LORD will put His hook in his nose and turn him back by the way he came.
• Verses 29–34 God gives a sign—in the first and second years the people will eat what grows of itself, and in the third year they will sow and reap—along with a promise concerning the remnant. He declares that the king of Assyria will not come into the city or shoot an arrow there.
• Verses 35–37 That night the angel of the LORD strikes down 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp. Sennacherib returns to Nineveh, where his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer kill him in the temple of Nisroch, and Esarhaddon becomes king.

Key Verses

• 2 Kings 19:14 "spread it before the LORD" — frequently cited as a picture of prayer that lays a crisis directly before God.
• 2 Kings 19:19 "that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD God, even thou only" — shows that the aim of the prayer is that God's name be made known.
• 2 Kings 19:35 "the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand" — the climax of the chapter, in which the prophecy is fulfilled exactly as spoken.

People and Places

• Hezekiah King of Judah.
• Isaiah the prophet Son of Amoz; he delivers God's answer.
• Sennacherib King of Assyria; in this chapter he threatens Jerusalem.
• Rabshakeh A high-ranking Assyrian official; the term is understood as a title rather than a personal name.
• Eliakim and Shebna Hezekiah's palace administrator and scribe.
• Tirhakah A king from Cush (rendered "Ethiopia" in the KJV; roughly the region of present-day northern Sudan).
• Adrammelech, Sharezer, and Esarhaddon Sons of Sennacherib.
• Jerusalem and Zion The city God promised to defend for the sake of David.
• Lachish and Libnah Towns in southwestern Judah, where the king of Assyria was fighting.
• Nineveh The capital of Assyria.
• The land of Ararat (KJV "Armenia") The place to which the assassins fled; understood as an ancient kingdom in the region of present-day Armenia.

Points for Reflection

• Many churches read "the angel of the LORD" in verse 35 as a supernatural judgment carried out by an angel sent by God. Some scholars explain that God used a means such as a plague. Others connect the event with Herodotus's account of field mice gnawing through the bowstrings of the Assyrian army, though this detail does not appear in the biblical text.
• Sennacherib's own annals (such as the Taylor Prism) record that he shut Hezekiah up in Jerusalem "like a bird in a cage" and received tribute from him. They are not known to contain any claim that he captured Jerusalem.
• Sennacherib's campaign is generally dated to about 701 BC and his assassination to about 681 BC, implying an interval of roughly twenty years between verses 36 and 37.
• Some hold that Tirhakah came to the throne later than this event and explain that he is referred to here by his later title.

In the Korean Church

The scene of Hezekiah spreading out the letter and praying (verses 14–19) and the account of the 185,000-strong Assyrian army perishing in a single night are frequently used as sermon texts on answered prayer and the sovereignty of God.