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| 1 And it came to pass when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his garments, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of Jehovah. |
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| 2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz. |
To Isaiah – Hezekiah's friend, advisor and supposed tutor in earlier years. R2381:3
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| 3 And they said to him, Thus says Hezekiah: This day is a day of trouble and of rebuke and of reviling; for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. |
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| 4 It may be Jehovah thy God will hear all the words of Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to reproach the living God; and will rebuke the words which Jehovah thy God has heard. Therefore lift up a prayer for the remnant that is left. |
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| 5 And the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah. |
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| 6 And Isaiah said to them, Thus shall ye say to your master: Thus saith Jehovah: Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. |
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| 7 Behold, I will put a spirit into him, and he shall hear tidings, and shall return to his own land; and I will make him to fall by the sword in his own land. |
I will send a blast – Smiting of the angel of the Lord. (See 2 Kings 19:35) R2382:2
Some have supposed a simoon, or sandstorm, not uncommon in the Arabian desert. R2382:1
Fall by the sword – Sennacherib was assassinated by his own sons. R2382:4
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| 8 And Rab-shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah; for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish. |
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| 9 And he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he has come forth to make war with thee. And he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying, |
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| 10 Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah saying: Let not thy God, upon whom thou reliest, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. |
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| 11 Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all countries, destroying them utterly; and shalt thou be delivered? |
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| 12 Have the gods of the nations which my fathers have destroyed delivered them: Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden that were in Thelassar? |
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| 13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah? |
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| 14 And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up into the house of Jehovah, and spread it before Jehovah. |
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| 15 And Hezekiah prayed before Jehovah and said, Jehovah, God of Israel, who sittest between the cherubim, thou, the Same, thou alone art the God of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made the heavens and the earth. |
Between the cherubims – Representing love and power, above a foundation of justice represented by the Mercy Seat. T125
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| 16 Incline thine ear, Jehovah, and hear; open, Jehovah, thine eyes, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, who hath sent him to reproach the living God. |
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| 17 Of a truth, Jehovah, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands, |
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| 18 and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone; therefore have they destroyed them. |
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| 19 And now, Jehovah our God, I beseech thee, save us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou, Jehovah, art God, thou only. |
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| 20 And Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel: That which thou hast prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard. |
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| 21 This is the word that Jehovah has spoken against him: The virgin-daughter of Zion despiseth thee, laugheth thee to scorn; The daughter of Jerusalem shaketh her head at thee. |
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| 22 Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted the voice? Against the Holy one of Israel hast thou lifted up thine eyes on high. |
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| 23 By thy messengers thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots have I come up To the height of the mountain, to the recesses of Lebanon, And I will cut down its tall cedars, the choice of its cypresses; And I will enter into its furthest lodging-place, into the forest of its fruitful field. |
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| 24 I have digged, and have drunk strange waters, And with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the streams of Matsor. |
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| 25 Hast thou not heard long ago that I have done it? And that from ancient days I formed it? Now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps. |
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| 26 And their inhabitants were powerless, They were dismayed and put to shame; They were as the growing grass, and as the green herb, As the grass on the housetops, and grain blighted before it be grown up. |
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| 27 But I know thine abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, And thy raging against me. |
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| 28 Because thy raging against me and thine arrogance is come up into mine ears, I will put my ring in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, And I will make thee go back by the way by which thou camest. |
Hook in thy nose ... bridle – Representing the manner in which bullocks and horses are controlled. R2381:5
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| 29 And this shall be the sign unto thee: They shall eat this year such as groweth of itself, And in the second year that which springeth of the same; But in the third year sow ye and reap, And plant vineyards and eat the fruit thereof. |
This shall be a sign – That the deliverance was not temporary but permanent. R2382:4
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| 30 And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah Shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward; |
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| 31 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, And out of mount Zion they that escape: The zeal of Jehovah of hosts shall do this. |
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| 32 Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city, Nor shoot an arrow there, Nor come before it with shield, Nor cast a bank against it. |
Shall not come into – Confirmed by the inscriptions on the monuments unearthed in Sennacherib's palace in Nineveh. R520:5*
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| 33 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, And shall not come into this city, saith Jehovah. |
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| 34 And I will defend this city, to save it, For mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake. |
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| 35 And it came to pass that night, that an angel of Jehovah went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand. And when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead bodies. |
Angel of the LORD – Does not necessarily refer to an angelic being, but signifies "messenger." God is able to use winds or waves, lightnings or sandstorms, or pestilence, or any other agency. R2382:2, R3582:5; PD41/52
Smote In the camp – Would have been most horrible if those smitten had gone to eternal torment instead of awaiting a resurrection, secured by Christ's death. PD41/52
Jewish tradition ascribes the destruction to a pestilence. R2382:2
Egyptian history ascribes Sennacherib's retreat to an invasion of field mice which gnawed the quivers, bowstrings and thongs of their shields. But mice, to the Egyptians, are a figurative way of speaking of the plagues. R2382:2
Other incidents of divine providence similarly intervening to protect those whom divine will did not want further injured include the destruction of the Spanish Armada and the retreat of Napoleon's army from Moscow. R2382:2
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| 36 And Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and abode at Nineveh. |
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| 37 And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead. |
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