Isaiah 37:21-38--Sennacherib's Fall

Isaiah 37:21-38
English Standard Version

Sennacherib's Fall
21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22 this is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning him:

“‘She despises you, she scorns you--
    the virgin daughter of Zion;
she wags her head behind you--
    the daughter of Jerusalem.

23 “‘Whom have you mocked and reviled?
    Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes to the heights?
    Against the Holy One of Israel!
24 By your servants you have mocked the Lord,
    and you have said, With my many chariots
I have gone up the heights of the mountains,
    to the far recesses of Lebanon,
to cut down its tallest cedars,
    its choicest cypresses,
to come to its remotest height,
    its most fruitful forest.
25 I dug wells
    and drank waters,
to dry up with the sole of my foot
    all the streams of Egypt.

26 “‘Have you not heard
    that I determined it long ago?
I planned from days of old
    what now I bring to pass,
that you should make fortified cities
    crash into heaps of ruins,
27 while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,
    are dismayed and confounded,
and have become like plants of the field
    and like tender grass,
like grass on the housetops,
    blighted before it is grown.

28 “‘I know your sitting down
    and your going out and coming in,
    and your raging against me.
29 Because you have raged against me
    and your complacency has come to my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
    and my bit in your mouth,
and I will turn you back on the way
    by which you came.’

30 “And this shall be the sign for you: this year you shall eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from that. Then in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 31 And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. 32 For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

33 “Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it. 34 By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the LORD. 35 For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”

​36 And the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. 37 Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh. 38 And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword. And after they escaped into the land of Ararat, Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

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The LORD sends Isaiah to Hezekiah with an answer to Hezekiah's prayer.  The LORD is happy that Hezekiah prayed to Him about Sennacherib, and because of that, the LORD has Isaiah prophecy against Sennacherib and Assyria.  It will be Jerusalem and all of Judah that scorn Assyria, and it will be the LORD who mocks Sennacherib and the king of Assyria for their pride and arrogance.

The LORD quotes Sennacherib's words back to him to let him know that the LORD heard everything that was said against Him and that He is able to defend Himself.  The curses, barbs, taunts, and threats that were meant to demoralize God's people and cause them to cower in fear were actually attacks against the character and nature of the LORD, and He will not let those attacks go unchallenged or unpunished.

The LORD makes sure that Sennacherib knows that He is sovereign, and everything happens according to His divine plan that He established before the foundations of the world were ever laid by His spoken word.  The armies of Assyria are nothing to Him.  They are like the grass that is here today and gone tomorrow--easily plucked up and made as fuel for the fire and gone in a puff of smoke.

The LORD would tame Sennacherib and make it as if there was a hook in his nose and a bit in his mouth.  The LORD would make him go where He directed and lead him away from the LORD's people.  The LORD gives the people a sign to tell them they should not plan their fields for two years--only eat what grows wild and what grows from that the next year as well, but they should plant their fields as they normally would the third year, and the LORD would preserve them through this time of rest that they depend on Him for their provision.  The LORD will show them that He can make the Land produce for them, and it will be a sign that He will take care of them even when they go off into Exile.  The Land will not produce for their enemies, but the LORD will cause it to once again start producing for them when they return from Exile.

Now the prophecy against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, turns outward to the whole of the Assyrian army that Sennacherib commanded.  He promises they too will not attack Jerusalem and will be turned away, because the LORD Himself will defend Jerusalem for the sake of His servant David (the Davidic Covenant of the coming Messiah, that is, Jesus).  It was not because the people deserved God's help, but because God's nature is that He is our Savior, and He is always about the business of saving His people--that is just one facet of who He is.

It did not take long for the fulfillment of this part of the prophecy as the angel of the LORD (I believe that to be a preincarnate appearance of the second person of the Trinity or what is called a Christophany) came and struck down (killed) 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in their camp while they were sleeping.  They were resting comfortably thinking that they were invincible, but the Lord who holds the keys to life and death decided that tonight was the night that the lives of these men would be required of them and that He would save His people in a way that was clear that He had intervened on their behalf.  When the Assyrians woke and saw this, the king of Assyria decided that wisdom was the better part of valor, and he departed to go back to his own country.

That is not the end of the story though.  Sennacherib goes home to worship his false god in the temple of the god of Nisroch in Nineveh.  There he was assassinated by two of his sons who likely killed him while praying to this god who he claimed was more powerful than the LORD yet was unable to save him or even warn him that his life was in danger.  These sons then fled into the land of Ararat (a mountainous region that spans from modern-day Turkey and might be known to some as Armenia).  His son Esarhaddon took his place, and Assyria is no longer a threat to the people of Judah and Jerusalem.