2 Kings 19:20-37

Isaiah Prophesies Sennacherib's Fall

20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Your prayer to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria 1I have heard.
21 This is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning him: "She despises you, she scorns you-- 2the virgin daughter of Zion; she 3wags her head behind you-- the daughter of Jerusalem.
22 "Whom have you 4mocked and 5reviled? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes to the heights? Against 6the Holy One of Israel!
23 7By your messengers you have mocked the Lord, and you have said, 8'With my many chariots I have gone up the heights of the mountains, to the far recesses of 9Lebanon; I felled its tallest cedars, its choicest cypresses; I entered its farthest lodging place, its most 10fruitful forest.
24 I dug wells and drank foreign waters, and I dried up with the sole of my foot all the streams 11of Egypt.'
25 "Have you not heard that 12I determined it long ago? I planned from days of old what 13now I bring to pass, that you should turn fortified cities into heaps of ruins,
26 while their inhabitants, shorn of strength, are dismayed and confounded, and have become 14like plants of the field and like tender grass, like grass on the housetops, blighted before it is grown.
27 "But I know your sitting down 15and your going out and coming in, and your raging against me.
28 Because you have raged against me and your complacency has come into my ears, I will 16put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and 17I will turn you back on the way by which you came.
29 "And this shall be 18the sign for you: this year eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs of the same. Then in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.
30 19And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward.
31 For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion 20a band of survivors. 21The zeal of the LORD will do this.
32 "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 22cast up a siege mound against it.
33 23By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the LORD.
34 24For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake 25and for the sake of my servant David."
35 And that night 26the 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.
36 Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at 27Nineveh.
37 And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, 28Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

2 Kings 19:20-37 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 19

This chapter relates that King Hezekiah, on a report made to him of Rabshakeh's speech, sent a message to the prophet Isaiah to pray for him, who returned him a comfortable and encouraging answer, 2Ki 19:1-7 and that upon Rabshakeh's return to the king of Assyria, he sent to Hezekiah a terrifying letter, 2Ki 19:8-13, which Hezekiah spread before the Lord, and prayed unto him to save him and his people out of the hands of the king of Assyria, 2Ki 19:14-19, to which he had a gracious answer sent him by the prophet Isaiah, promising him deliverance from the Assyrian army, 2Ki 19:20-34, which accordingly was destroyed by an angel in one night, and Sennacherib fleeing to Nineveh, was slain by his two sons, 2Ki 19:35-37.

Cross References 28

  • 1. [2 Kings 20:5]
  • 2. Lamentations 2:13
  • 3. Job 16:4; Psalms 22:7; Psalms 109:25; Lamentations 2:15
  • 4. ver. 4
  • 5. ver. 6
  • 6. Psalms 71:22; Isaiah 5:24; Isaiah 60:9; Jeremiah 51:5
  • 7. 2 Kings 18:17
  • 8. Psalms 20:7
  • 9. See Judges 9:15
  • 10. 2 Chronicles 26:10; [Isaiah 10:18]
  • 11. Isaiah 19:6
  • 12. [Isaiah 45:7]
  • 13. [Isaiah 10:5]
  • 14. Psalms 129:6
  • 15. [1 Samuel 29:6]
  • 16. Ezekiel 29:4; Ezekiel 38:4; [Job 41:2; Isaiah 30:28; Amos 4:2]
  • 17. ver. 33, 36
  • 18. 2 Kings 20:8, 9; 1 Samuel 2:34; Isaiah 7:11, 14
  • 19. [2 Chronicles 32:22, 23]
  • 20. [Isaiah 10:20]
  • 21. Isaiah 9:7
  • 22. 2 Samuel 20:15
  • 23. ver. 28
  • 24. 2 Kings 20:6; [Isaiah 31:5]
  • 25. 1 Kings 11:13
  • 26. [Exodus 12:23; 2 Samuel 24:16]
  • 27. Genesis 10:11; Jonah 1:2
  • 28. [2 Kings 17:31]
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.