Isaiah’s Message of Deliverance
(Isaiah 37:1–7)
On hearing this report, King Hezekiah tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and entered the house of the LORD. 1Ki 21:272Ki 18:372Ch 32:20-22Gen 37:34Isa 37:1-7Job 1:20-211Ki 21:291Sa 4:12 And he sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz Isa 1:1Isa 2:12Ch 26:222Ki 18:182Ki 22:13-14Isa 37:2-5Luk 3:4Mat 4:14 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. Isa 66:9Jer 30:5-7Heb 3:15-16Hos 13:13Isa 26:17-182Ki 18:29Hos 5:15Psa 123:3-4 Perhaps the LORD your God will hear all 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.” 2Sa 16:12Ezk 36:37Jas 5:16-17Jos 14:12Rom 9:271Sa 14:61Sa 17:452Ch 28:5-6
So the servants of King Hezekiah went to Isaiah, 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. 2Ki 18:172Ki 18:35Isa 37:6-382Ch 20:152Ch 20:172Ki 18:302Ki 6:16Deu 20:1 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.’” 2Ki 7:62Ch 32:21Isa 10:16-18Isa 11:4Oba 1:1Psa 18:14-152Ki 19:35-37Jer 49:14
Sennacherib’s Blasphemous Letter
(Isaiah 37:8–13)
When the Rabshakeh heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah. 2Ki 18:14Jos 10:292Ki 8:22Isa 37:8-9Jos 12:11Jos 12:15Jos 15:39Jos 15:42
Now Sennacherib had been warned about Tirhakah king of Cush: 1 “Look, he has set out to fight against you.” 1Sa 23:272Ki 18:17Isa 37:9
So Sennacherib again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, “Give this message to Hezekiah king of Judah: 2Ki 18:52Ki 18:29-302Ch 32:15-19Isa 37:10-14
‘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. Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other countries, devoting them to destruction. 2 Will you then be spared? 2Ch 32:13-142Ki 17:5-112Ki 19:17-18Isa 10:8-11 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? 2Ki 17:6Ezk 27:23Gen 11:31Isa 37:121Ch 5:262Ki 18:33-34Act 7:4Gen 2:8 Where are the kings of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’” 2Ki 18:342Ki 17:24Isa 11:11Isa 37:13-20Jer 39:5Jer 49:23Num 13:21Num 34:8
Hezekiah’s Prayer
(Isaiah 37:14–20)
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. Isa 37:14Psa 123:1-4Psa 91:1-21Ki 8:28-30Ezr 9:5Psa 74:10-11 And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD: 1Ki 18:392Ki 5:15Dan 4:34-35Dan 9:3-4Exo 25:22Isa 44:6Isa 44:8Jer 10:10-12
“O LORD, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth. Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see. Listen to the words that Sennacherib has sent to defy the living God. 2Ch 6:402Ki 19:4Isa 37:17Psa 31:21Ki 8:29Dan 9:18Heb 11:26Isa 37:4
Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste these nations and their lands. 1Ch 5:261Co 14:252Ki 16:92Ki 17:242Ki 17:6Act 4:27Dan 2:47Isa 10:9-11 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. Act 17:29Isa 44:9-20Jer 10:3-92Sa 5:21Isa 37:18-19Isa 46:1-2Jer 10:14-16Psa 115:4-8
And now, O LORD our God, please save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God.” Psa 83:181Ki 8:43Psa 67:1-21Ki 18:36-371Ki 20:281Sa 17:45-47Dan 4:34-37Exo 9:15-16
Sennacherib’s Fall Prophesied
(Isaiah 37:21–35)
Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria. 2Ki 20:52Ch 32:20-211Jn 5:14-15Act 10:31Isa 65:24Jer 33:32Sa 15:31Act 10:4 This is the word that the LORD has spoken against him: Lam 2:13Jer 14:17Job 16:4Mat 27:39Isa 37:21-35Lam 2:15Psa 109:25Psa 22:7-8
‘The Virgin Daughter of Zion
despises you and mocks you;
the Daughter of Jerusalem
shakes her head behind you.
Whom have you taunted and blasphemed? Isa 5:24Psa 71:222Th 2:4Isa 30:11-12Isa 30:15Jer 51:52Co 10:52Ki 18:28-35
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes in pride?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
Through your servants you have taunted the Lord, 2Ki 18:17Psa 20:7Isa 10:182Ch 26:102Ch 32:172Ki 18:232Ki 18:33-34Ezk 31:3-18
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. 3
I have reached its farthest outposts,
the densest of its forests.
I have dug wells 1Ki 20:102Sa 17:13Dan 4:30Exo 15:9Isa 19:6
and drunk foreign waters.
With the soles of my feet
I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.”
Have you not heard? Isa 45:7Isa 10:5-6Isa 37:26-27Isa 46:10-11Act 4:27-28Isa 10:15Isa 54:16Psa 33:11
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.
Therefore their inhabitants, devoid of power, 1Pe 1:24Isa 40:6-8Jas 1:10-11Jer 37:10Jer 50:36-37Jer 51:30Jer 51:32Num 11:23
are dismayed and ashamed.
They are like plants in the field,
tender green shoots,
grass on the rooftops,
scorched before it is grown.
But I know your sitting down, Isa 37:28-29Jer 23:23-24Deu 28:6Psa 121:8Psa 139:1-11Deu 28:19
your going out and coming in,
and your raging against Me.
Because your rage and arrogance against Me Ezk 29:42Ki 19:33Ezk 38:4Amo 4:2Isa 30:28Job 41:22Ki 19:36-37Act 7:51
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.’
And this will be a sign to you, O Hezekiah: Lev 25:20-222Ki 20:8-9Exo 3:12Isa 37:30Luk 2:121Sa 2:34Isa 7:11-14Lev 25:4-5
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.
And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah 2Ki 19:4Isa 27:62Ch 32:22-23Isa 10:20-22Isa 1:9Isa 37:31-32Psa 80:9
will again take root below
and bear fruit above.
For a remnant will go forth from Jerusalem, Isa 9:7Isa 10:20Jhn 2:17Rom 11:5Rom 9:27Ezk 20:9Ezk 5:13Isa 59:17
and survivors from Mount Zion.
The zeal of the LORD of Hosts 4
will accomplish this.
So this is what the LORD says about the king of Assyria: 2Sa 20:15Isa 8:7-10Ezk 21:22Isa 10:24-25Isa 10:28-32Isa 37:33-35Luk 19:43-44
‘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.
He will go back the way he came, 2Ki 19:282Ki 19:36
and he will not enter this city,’
declares the LORD.
‘I will defend this city 1Ki 11:12-132Ki 20:61Ki 15:4Isa 31:5Jer 33:26Isa 38:6Jer 23:5-6Jer 33:21
and save it
for My own sake
and for the sake of My servant David.’”
Jerusalem Delivered from the Assyrians
(2 Chronicles 32:20–23; Isaiah 37:36–38)
And that very night 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! 2Ch 32:21-222Sa 24:16Exo 12:29-30Isa 37:361Th 5:2-3Psa 76:5-7Act 12:23Dan 5:30 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. Jon 1:22Ki 19:282Ki 19:332Ki 19:7Gen 10:11-12Jon 3:2-10Mat 12:41Nam 1:1
One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer 5put him to the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. And his son Esar-haddon reigned in his place. Ezr 4:2Gen 8:42Ki 19:7Jer 51:272Ch 32:142Ch 32:192Ch 32:212Ki 18:30