Isaiah 37

Isaiah 36–39 is a narrative section recording events from the reign of Hezekiah. Chapter 37 follows chapter 36, in which the Assyrian commander Rabshakeh stood before Jerusalem, demanded its surrender, and blasphemed the LORD. Its content is nearly identical to that of 2 Kings 19.

Outline

• Verses 1–5 Hezekiah tears his clothes, covers himself with sackcloth, and goes into the house of the LORD. He sends Eliakim, Shebna, and the elders of the priests to Isaiah, asking him to pray for the remnant.
• Verses 6–7 Isaiah tells them not to be afraid. He prophesies that the king of Assyria will hear a rumor, return to his own land, and fall by the sword.
• Verses 8–13 The king of Assyria hears that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia (Cush), has come out to fight against him. He sends messengers to Hezekiah and threatens him again, pointing out that the gods of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden did not deliver them.
• Verses 14–20 Hezekiah spreads the letter he has received before the LORD and prays that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that He alone is the LORD.
• Verses 21–29 Through Isaiah, the LORD rebukes Sennacherib's pride. He declares that He will put His hook in Sennacherib's nose and turn him back by the way he came.
• Verses 30–32 As a sign, the LORD promises food for three years and declares that the remnant of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward.
• Verses 33–35 The king of Assyria will not shoot a single arrow at this city, for the LORD will defend it for His own sake and for the sake of David.
• Verses 36–38 The angel of the LORD strikes 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp. Sennacherib returns to Nineveh, where his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer kill him in the house of Nisroch his god, and Esarhaddon becomes king.

Key Verses

• Isaiah 37:16 "thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth" — the central confession of Hezekiah's prayer.
• Isaiah 37:20 "that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD, even thou only" — shows that the plea for deliverance is ultimately directed toward the name of God.
• Isaiah 37:36 "Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand" — the scene in which the prophecy is fulfilled.

People and Places

• Hezekiah: king of Judah.
• Isaiah the prophet: the son of Amoz, who delivers the word of the LORD to Hezekiah.
• Eliakim: the official over the royal household.
• Shebna: a scribe.
• Sennacherib: king of Assyria.
• Tirhakah: king of Ethiopia (Cush).
• Esarhaddon: Sennacherib's son and successor.
• Lachish and Libnah: cities in southwestern Judah where the king of Assyria was stationed and against which he fought.
• Jerusalem and Zion, Nineveh, and Haran also appear in this chapter.

Points for Reflection

• The text attributes the death of the Assyrian soldiers only to "the angel of the LORD." Explanations that attribute it to a plague are inferences drawn from outside the text.
• Sennacherib's annals reportedly record that he besieged Jerusalem and shut Hezekiah up within it, but they are not known to claim that he captured the city.
• Although Sennacherib's death follows immediately in the text, it is understood to have occurred about twenty years after the campaign (701 BC).
• The theme of the remnant in verses 30–32 runs throughout the book of Isaiah.

In the Korean Church

The image of Hezekiah spreading the letter he received "before the LORD" in a time of crisis (verse 14) is frequently cited in sermons on prayer.