Isaiah 37

Jerusalem is under threat from the Assyrian army, and King Hezekiah takes the Assyrian king’s insults to the LORD instead of trusting his own defenses. God answers through Isaiah, promising to humble Sennacherib and protect the city. In one night the angel of the LORD strikes the Assyrian camp, and Sennacherib goes home to a shameful end.

Isaiah 37:1

Hezekiah hears the Assyrian officer’s threats and responds with grief and humility. Tearing clothes and wearing sackcloth were signs of mourning and repentance. Then he goes to the temple, where God’s people meet Him. His first move in the crisis is to turn toward God.

BSA: sackcloth (“a coarse cloth”): Rough, scratchy cloth was worn on purpose to show humility and sorrow before God.

See also: 2 Kings 19:1.

Isaiah 37:2

Hezekiah sends his highest officials and the senior priests to Isaiah. They also wear sackcloth, so the whole leadership shares his humility. Notice that Shebna, once the top official, is now only the scribe, and Eliakim holds the higher office. The king seeks a word from God’s prophet.

BSA: prophet (“one who speaks for God, spokesperson”): Isaiah is sought out as God’s mouthpiece, not as a political adviser.

Isaiah 37:3

The messengers describe the day with three heavy words: distress, rebuke, disgrace. Hezekiah then uses a picture of a woman in labor with no strength left to give birth. The nation has reached the crisis point and cannot save itself. Only God can bring deliverance.

BSA: strength (“power, might”): Judah has no strength of its own left, which sets the stage for God’s power.

Hebrew: מַשְׁבֵּר (mashber, H4866) — “the place of breaking forth, the birth point.” The word pictures the very moment of delivery. The nation is at the point where life must come, but the strength to bring it is gone.

Isaiah 37:4

Hezekiah sees the real issue: the Assyrian has insulted the living God, not merely threatened Jerusalem. He hopes God has heard and will answer. He asks Isaiah to pray for the remnant, the few who are left after Assyria has overrun the land. He values the prophet’s prayer, though he will pray himself too.

BSA: remnant (“what is left, the remaining ones”): Much of Judah has already fallen, and only a small surviving group remains to be prayed for. defy (“taunt, reproach”): The Assyrian’s speech was not just a military threat but a scornful insult aimed at God.

Hebrew: חַי (chai, H2416) — “living.” Idols are lifeless objects, but the God of Israel is alive. He hears, sees and acts, and so insulting Him is a dangerous thing.

Isaiah 37:5-7

God’s answer is calm and brief: do not be afraid. The Assyrian words are blasphemy against God Himself. God will put a spirit in the king so that he hears news, goes home, and dies by the sword. Fear gives way to confidence because God has taken the matter into His own hands.

BSA: blasphemed (“reviled, spoken evil of”): God treats the Assyrian speech as an attack on His own honor, and He will answer it. rumor (“news, report, tidings”): A simple piece of news will be enough to turn the mighty king around.

Hebrew: רוּחַ (ruach, H7307) — “spirit, breath, wind.” God will place a new disposition in Sennacherib. The great king will be moved without knowing that God is moving him.

See also: Proverbs 21:1.

Isaiah 37:8-9

The Assyrian officer finds his king at Libnah, having left Lachish. Then Sennacherib hears that Tirhakah of Cush, the region south of Egypt, is marching against him. The rumor Isaiah spoke of begins to work. Sennacherib then sends one more message to Hezekiah, still determined to break his trust.

BSA: warned (“informed, received news”): The word is plain news, but it arrives just as God said it would.

Isaiah 37:10-13

Sennacherib’s letter says that Hezekiah’s God is deceiving him. He lists towns Assyria has crushed, whose gods did nothing. His argument is that no god has stopped Assyria, so Jerusalem’s God will not either. He lumps the LORD in with the idols of nations, which is his fatal mistake.

BSA: devoting (“to devote, destroy, utterly demolish”): Assyria treated conquered lands as places set apart for total destruction, which is the fear the letter plays on. deceive (“lead astray, mislead”): The king calls trust in God a trick, a lie that will lead Hezekiah to ruin.

Isaiah 37:14

Hezekiah reads the threatening letter, then carries it into the temple and lays it open before the LORD. This is a picture of prayer: bringing the very thing that frightens us and putting it in God’s hands. He does not argue with the letter. He shows it to God.

BSA: spread it out (“stretched out, unfolded”): He opens the whole letter out before God, hiding nothing.

Hebrew: וַיִּפְרְשֵׂהוּ (vayifreseihu, H6566) — “and he spread it out.” The verb means to unroll or lay open. Hezekiah physically lays the scroll before God in the temple, a picture of bringing a problem to Him.

See also: Philippians 4:6.

Isaiah 37:15-16

Hezekiah begins by naming who God is, before he names the problem. God is the LORD of Hosts, enthroned above the cherubim, the One who rules over every kingdom and made heaven and earth. Prayer starts with remembering how great the One is to whom we speak.

BSA: alone (“solely, uniquely”): The LORD is not one god among many but the only God, which answers Sennacherib’s comparison.

Hebrew: יֹשֵׁב הַכְּרֻבִים (yoshev hakkeruvim, H7725) — “sitting above the cherubim.” The cherubim were the winged figures over the ark in the temple. God’s throne is there, so Hezekiah prays to the King who actually rules from this place.

See also: Exodus 25:22.

Isaiah 37:17

Hezekiah asks God to bend His ear and open His eyes, using bold, human-sounding language. He asks God to listen to every word Sennacherib has sent. The insults are against the living God, and Hezekiah lets God take it personally on His own behalf.

BSA: hear (“with attention and obedience”): Hezekiah asks God not merely to notice the words but to respond to them.

Isaiah 37:18-19

Hezekiah admits that Assyria did conquer those nations and burn their gods. But the reason is that those gods were wood and stone, made by human hands. He does not deny the facts of the letter. He corrects its conclusion: the LORD is a different kind of God altogether.

BSA: wood (“natural, unrefined material”): The so-called gods were just raw material shaped by people, so they could not save anyone.

See also: Psalm 115:4-8.

Isaiah 37:20

Now comes the request: save us. But the aim goes beyond Judah’s safety. Hezekiah wants all the kingdoms of the earth to know that the LORD alone is God. His prayer joins his people’s rescue to God’s glory among the nations.

BSA: know (“understand, recognize”): He wants the nations to come to see for themselves who God is, not merely to be impressed.

Isaiah 37:21

Isaiah sends word that God has heard. The reason given is simple: Hezekiah prayed. The reply comes in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, and addresses Sennacherib directly. Prayer made in humble trust is not wasted.

BSA: prayed (“interceded, made a request”): Hezekiah’s request, made on behalf of his people, is the very thing that prompts God’s answer.

Isaiah 37:22

God gives the proud king a poem of mockery. Jerusalem is pictured as a young woman, untouched and secure, who laughs at him and shakes her head as he runs away. The city that seemed helpless now has the last laugh, because God is its defender.

BSA: despises (“to hold in contempt, to scorn”): The city looks down on the one who looked down on it.

Hebrew: בְּתוּלַת (betulat, H1330) — “virgin, maiden.” Calling Zion a virgin daughter shows a city never taken by force. It is a picture of untouched safety under God’s care.

See also: Lamentations 2:15.

Isaiah 37:23

God asks pointed questions to show the king whom he has really insulted. It is not Hezekiah or a small kingdom. It is the Holy One of Israel, a title Isaiah uses again and again for God. Pride has made the king blind to who stands above him.

BSA: Holy One (“set apart, sacred”): God is utterly distinct from every earthly power and every false god, so mocking Him is a grave mistake.

See also: Isaiah 6:3.

Isaiah 37:24-25

God quotes the king’s boasting. He claims to have climbed the highest mountains with his chariots, cut Lebanon’s great cedars, dug wells in foreign lands, and dried up Egypt’s streams. Everything is I and my. He gives himself the credit for what God allowed him to do.

BSA: chariots (“multitude of war-carriages”): The boast rests on military machinery and numbers, which the king trusts instead of God.

See also: Isaiah 10:12-14.

Isaiah 37:26

God answers the boast. Long before, He planned that Assyria would crush fortified cities. The king was only a tool in a plan he did not know. What he thought was his own power was God’s purpose, which makes his pride look foolish.

BSA: ordained (“planned, formed, and purposed”): God was the designer of these events from long ago, not Sennacherib.

See also: Isaiah 10:5-7.

Isaiah 37:27

The people of those cities had no power left and were shamed. God likens them to tender shoots, or to grass on a rooftop that withers in the sun before it can grow tall. They were weak, and an unseen hand gave Assyria the success it boasted about.

BSA: scorched (“blasted, withered”): Rooftop grass has no depth of soil, so the heat kills it quickly, which pictures how fragile these nations were.

Isaiah 37:28-29

God sees everything the king does: sitting, going out, coming in. He has heard the rage and arrogance. So He will treat the king like a wild animal and lead him back by a hook in the nose and a bit in the mouth. The conqueror will be led home against his will.

BSA: know (“am intimately aware of”): God’s knowledge of the king is complete and close, so nothing is hidden from Him. bit (“bridle, control”): God will take control of the king’s course, as a rider steers an animal.

Hebrew: חַח (chach, H2397) — “hook, ring.” This was a ring or hook put through the nose of a captured animal or prisoner to lead it. The mighty king is shown as God’s captive.

See also: Psalm 139:1-3.

Isaiah 37:30

God gives Hezekiah a sign. For two years the people will eat only what grows by itself, since the invaders have disrupted the farming. In the third year they will sow and reap normally again. God promises that life will return to normal in time, and He gives them food in the meantime.

BSA: sign (“a miraculous token, a wonder”): The sign is a pledge from God that His promise will come true.

Hebrew: אוֹת (ot, H853) — “sign, token.” A sign in Scripture is a visible pledge that God will keep His word. The self-sown crops are the pledge that the land will be restored.

Isaiah 37:31-32

The survivors of Judah will take root downward and bear fruit upward, like a plant recovering after a flood. A remnant will go out from Jerusalem. The promise rests on God’s own zeal, the fierce commitment of the LORD of Hosts, not on the people’s strength.

BSA: zeal (“intense determination”): God is fiercely committed to His people and His promises, and that is what guarantees the outcome.

Hebrew: קִנְאַת (qin’at, H7068) — “zeal, passionate jealousy.” The word describes a burning, protective love that will not let go of what is its own. God’s rescue of His people comes from that passion.

See also: Isaiah 9:7.

Isaiah 37:33-35

God promises that Sennacherib will not enter Jerusalem or fire an arrow or build a siege ramp. He will go back the way he came. God will defend the city for His own sake and for David’s sake, because of His promise to David’s line. Deliverance comes from God’s faithfulness to His word.

BSA: sake (“for My honor, reputation”): God acts to uphold His own name, not because the city has earned it.

Hebrew: וְגַנּוֹתִי (veganoti, H1598) — “and I will defend, shield, cover.” The verb means to cover over with protection, like a shield held over someone. God Himself will be the defense of Jerusalem.

See also: 2 Samuel 7:16; Psalm 46:5.

Isaiah 37:36

In one night the angel of the LORD strikes the Assyrian camp, and 185,000 lie dead in the morning. No Judean soldier lifts a weapon. The army that seemed unstoppable is stopped by a single messenger of God. The people wake to find the threat already ended.

BSA: angel (“messenger of God”): The angel is a sent servant acting on God’s command, which shows who is really in charge.

Hebrew: מַלְאַךְ (mal’ak, H4397) — “messenger, angel.” The word simply means one who is sent. The great army is undone by a single envoy carrying out God’s will.

See also: 2 Kings 19:35; 2 Chronicles 32:21.

Isaiah 37:37-38

Sennacherib breaks camp, returns to Nineveh and stays there. Later, while he worships in his god’s temple, his own sons kill him and flee. Another son, Esar-haddon, becomes king. The god he trusted could not protect him, and God’s word about the sword came true.

BSA: worshiping (“bowing down, showing reverence”): He is killed in the very act of honoring a false god, which shows how powerless that god was.

See also: Isaiah 37:7.