37:3Judah is compared to a waman who is trying to give birth to a child but is too weak to deliver. When the situation seemed hopeless, Hezekiah didn't give up. Instead, he asked the prophet Isaiah to pray that God would help his people. No matter how bad your circumstances seem, don’t despair. Turn to God.
Life Application Study BibleIsaiahChapter 37
Isaiah 37
New Living Translation · Life Application Study Bible · Original pages: 1146, 1147, 1148, 1149
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37Isaiah 37
Hezekiah Seeks the LORD’s Help
13 When King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes and put on burlap and went into the Temple of the LORD. 2And he sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the court secretary, and the leading priests, all dressed in burlap, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. 3They told him, “This is what King Hezekiah says: Today is a day of trouble, insults, and disgrace. It is like when a child is ready to be born, but the mother has no strength to deliver the baby. But perhaps the LORD your God has heard the Assyrian chief of staff,* sent by the king to defy the living God, and will punish him for his words. Oh, pray for those of us who are left!” 5After King Hezekiah’s officials delivered the king's message to Isaiah, ®the prophet replied, 6Say to your master, ‘This is what the LORD says: Do not be disturbed by this blasphemous speech against me from the Assyrian king's messengers. 7Listen! I myself will move against him,* and the king will receive a message that he is needed at home. So he will return to his land, where I will have him killed with a sword.’” 8Meanwhile, the Assyrian chief of staff left Jerusalem and went to consult the king of Assyria, who had left Lachish and was attacking Libnah. 9Soon afterward King Sennacherib received word that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia* was leading an army to fight against him. Before leaving to meet the attack, he sent messengers back to Hezekiah in Jerusalem with this message: 10"This message is for King Hezekiah of Judah. Don’t let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you with promises that Jerusalem will not be captured by the king of Assyria. 11You know perfectly well what the Kings of Assyria have done wherever they have gone. They have completely destroyed everyone who stood in their way! Why should you be any different? 12Have the gods of other nations rescued them—such nations as Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Tel-assar? My predecessors destroyed them all! 13What happened to the king of Hamath and the king of Arpad? What happened to the kings of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Iwah?” 14After Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it, he went up to the LORD’s Temple and spread it out before the LORD. $And Hezekiah prayed this prayer before the LORD: 16“O LORD of Heaven’s Armies, God of Israel,-you are enthroned between the mighty cherubim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You alone created the heavens and the earth. 17Bend down, O LORD, and listen! Open your eyes, O LORD, and see! Listen to Sennacherib’s words of defiance against the living God. 18“It is true, LORD, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all these nations. 19And they have thrown the gods of these nations into the fire and burned them. But of course the Assyrians could destroy them! They were not gods at all—only idols of wood and stone shaped by human hands. 20Now, O LORD our God, rescue us from his power; then all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you alone, O LORD, are God.*”
Isaiah Predicts Judah's Deliverance
2121 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: “ This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Because you prayed about King Sennacherib of Assyria,
22the LORD has spokenthis word against him:“The virgin daughter of Ziondespises you and laughs at you.The daughter of Jerusalemshakes her head in derision as you flee.
23“Whom have you been defying and ridiculing?Against whom did you raise your voice?At whom did you look with such haughty eyes?It was the Holy One of Israel!
24By your messengers you have defied the LORD.You have said, ‘With my many chariots37:4 Or the rabshakeh; also in 37:8. 37:7 Hebrew / will put a spirit in him. 37:9 Hebrew of Cush.Dead Sea Scrolls (see also 2 Kgs 19:19); Masoretic Text reads you alone are the LORD.
Ihave conquered the highest mountains—yes, the remotest peaks of Lebanon.Ihave cut down its tallest cedarsand its finest cypress trees.Ihave reached its farthest heightsand explored its deepest forests.
25T have dug wells in many foreign lands*and refreshed myself with their water.With the sole of my foot,I stopped up all the rivers of Egypt!’
26“But have you not heard?I decided this long ago.Long ago I planned it,and now I am making it happen.I planned for you to crush fortified citiesinto heaps of rubble.
27That is why their people have so little powerand are so frightened and confused.They are as weak as grass,as easily trampled as tender green shoots.They are like grass sprouting on a housetop,scorched* before it can grow lush and tall.
28“But I know you. well—where you stayand when you come and go.I know the way you have raged against me.
29And because of your raging against meand your arrogance, which I have heard for myself,I will put my hook in your noseand my bit in your mouth.I will make you returnby the same road on which you came.”
30Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Here is the proof that what I say is true:“This year you will eat only what grows up by itself,and next year you will eat what springs up from that.But in the third year you will plant crops and harvest them;you will tend vineyards and eat their fruit.
31And you who are left in Judah,who have escaped the ravages of the siege,will put roots down in your own soiland grow up and flourish.
32For a remnant of my people will spread out from Jerusalem,a group of survivors from Mount Zion.The passionate commitment of the LORD of Heaven's Armieswill make this happen!“His armies will not enter Jerusalem.They will not even shoot an arrow at it.They will not march outside its gates with their shieldsnor build banks of earth against its walls.
34The king will return to his own countryby the same road on which he came.
He will not enter this city/says the LORD.
35‘For my own honor and for the sake of my servant David,I will defend this city and protect it.”
36That night the angel of the LORD went out to the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. When the surviving Assyrians* woke up the next morning, they found corpses everywhere. 37Then King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and returned to his own land. He went home to his capital of Nineveh and stayed there. 38One day while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with their swords. They then escaped to the land of Ararat, and another son, Esarhaddon, became the next king of Assyria.
Textual footnotes
- Sea Scrolls and some Greek manuscripts (see also 2 Kgs 19:26); most Hebrew manuscripts read like a terraced field.
- 37:25 As in Dead Sea Scrolls (see also 2 Kgs 19:24); Masoretic Text lacks in many foreign lands.
- 37:27 As in Dead
- 37:36 Hebrew When they.
Life Application Notes 7 notes
37:4Hezekiah did exactly what Isaiah had been calling the people to do (chapters 1-35). He turned to God and watched him come to Judah’s aid. Turning to God means believing that God is there and that he is able to help you.
37:8-10Although the answer to Hezekiah’s prayer was already in motion because Tirhakah was poised to attack, Hezekiah did not know it. He persisted in prayer and faith even though he could not see the answer coming. When we pray, we must have faith that God has already prepared the best answer. Our task is to ask in faith and wait in humility.
37:16Cherubim are mighty angels. The phrase “enthroned between the mighty cherubim” refers to the atonement cover on the Ark of the Covenant, which symbolized God's holiness, power, and sovereignty.
37:29This was a common torture the Assyrians used on their captives. They were often led away with hooks in their noses or bits in their mouths to humiliate them. The LORD was threatening te do to the Assyrians what they had done to others.
37:35God would defend Jerusalem for the sake of his own honor and for David’s sake in remembrance of his promise to David. The Assyrians had insulted God. They would not be his instrument to punish Jerusalem. What Jerusalem could not Possibly do, God would do for it. God is prepared to do the impossible if we trust him enough to ask.
37:38The death of Sennacherib was prophesied by Isaiah in
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37:20 As in
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33“ And this is what the LORD says about the king of Assyria:
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38:10 Hebrew enter the gates of Sheol?
38:8 Hebrew the steps.