Isaiah 37 Study Notes

37:22 Daughter Zion is a personification of Zion, the most holy location in Judah. This reminds the reader of the intimate relationship God enjoyed with his people. The response was addressed to none other than Sennacherib, so the use of this title for God’s people shows from the start how important they were to Yahweh.

37:23 God was enraged by Sennacherib’s mocking condescension toward him, treating him as a local and powerless deity. He was the Holy One of Israel, one of Isaiah’s favorite titles for God, emphasizing his separateness, moral perfection, and uniqueness.

37:24 Lebanon’s cedar forests were well known throughout the ancient Near East, and glory was attached to anyone who could go there and take its precious wood.

37:25 It was always the dream of Mesopotamian kings to defeat Egypt. Sennacherib had boasted that he was able to travel to Egypt.

37:26-27 Now God revealed to Sennacherib the true nature of things. Sennacherib had boasted of his achievements, but God announced that he had done nothing without divine design. His victories had come about only because God had willed it.

37:28 In language reminiscent of Ps 139, God asserted his extensive knowledge of the Assyrian king. The Lord was in control.

37:29 It was Assyrian practice, as illustrated in the bas-reliefs that adorned their palaces, to put a hook in the nose or the mouth of captives as they carried them into exile. God told Sennacherib that he would be subjected to this brutal and degrading treatment.

37:30-32 God directed these words to Hezekiah, king of Judah, to show him that the future would see a turn for the better for God’s people.

37:30 Because of the siege by Assyria, the Judeans were penned up behind the walls of Jerusalem and had not been able to plant their crops. Thus, they would eat what grew on its own, an unreliable volunteer crop. After Assyria lifted the siege, they would be able to plant, but not until the third year would agriculture get back to normal.

37:31-32 Now the pronouncement speaks of a metaphorical harvest—of the surviving remnant of the people of God. The future will see the remnant become productive.

37:33-35 God directed his attention back to the king of Assyria. He announced that Sennacherib would fail at his attempt to take the city. He would not even begin the assault but would return to Assyria. God would do this for his own glory and because of the promise he had made to David. God promised David that “your house and kingdom will endure before me forever, and your throne will be established forever” (2Sm 7:16).

37:36-37 God sent his angel to kill the Assyrians without a battle. No proximate cause is given for the death of the enemy soldiers, though it is likely that God used disease to accomplish his goal.

37:38 Nisroch was an unknown Assyrian god or, more likely, the name given by the Hebrews to a god known by another name. Ararat was a region located around Lake Van north of Assyria. It was known in antiquity as Urartu and was a long-standing foe of Assyria, thus a likely place for the murderous sons of Sennacherib to escape. While Adrammelech and Sharezer are not known by name, Esar-haddon is known to have succeeded his father Sennacherib after the king’s death in 683 BC. Since these events happened in 683 BC, it appears that almost twenty years passed from the time Sennacherib withdrew from Jerusalem in 701 BC to the time when he died at the hands of his sons.