‏ Isaiah 36

Summary for Isa 36:1-37:38: 36:1–39:8  ^a Jerusalem’s rescue from King Sennacherib of Assyria is a focal point of chs 1–39  ^b. The Lord promised to rescue his people by remaining present with Jerusalem (see 7:14  ^c) and by maintaining a remnant (see study note on 10:20). Even though much of the country was desolate and the population decimated because of their foolish alliance with Assyria (chs 7–8  ^d), the Lord preserved his people from total conquest through Hezekiah, a godly king. Hezekiah faced the same test that Ahaz did, a test of trust (note the recurrence of words for trust in the Assyrian officer’s challenge in ch 36  ^e). But Hezekiah has learned the lessons taught in chs 13–35  ^f and, at least initially, he passed the test. This narrative is duplicated in 2 Kgs 18:13–20:19  ^g. 36:1  ^h King Sennacherib of Assyria ruled from 705–681 BC. Hezekiah, like many other kings under Assyrian vassalage, had reasserted his independence when Sennacherib came to the throne in troubled circumstances. By 701 BC, the Assyrian king was ready to punish Hezekiah. Sennacherib recorded having conquered forty-six fortified cities and many villages, and having taken 200,146 captives. Hezekiah responded by attempting to appease Sennacherib (see 2 Kgs 18:14-16  ⁱ), but it was too late.
36:2  ^j Lachish was a city overlooking the low-lying hills to the west of Jerusalem. It had to be taken before the final attack on Jerusalem could be launched.

• the aqueduct that feeds water into the upper pool: This was a pool on the north side of Jerusalem, not the Gihon Spring in the Kidron valley.

• Isaiah had met Ahaz on this same road leading to the field where cloth is washed some thirty-three years earlier (see Isa 7:3  ^k). At that time he had challenged Ahaz to trust God. However, Ahaz trusted Assyria instead, and this desperate situation was a result. Now the challenge to trust God came from mocking, foreign lips (see 28:11-13  ^l).
36:3  ^m Eliakim eventually advanced in rank, while Shebna was demoted (see 22:15-24  ⁿ).
Summary for Isa 36:4-22: 36:4-22  ^o The Assyrian chief of staff attempted to use intimidation to negotiate a settlement without bloodshed. In his first speech (36:4-10  ^p), he rightly argued against Egypt’s ability to rescue but wrongly charged Hezekiah with misplaced trust in the Lord. Strikingly, the Assyrian did not see the contest as being between the gods of Assyria and the Lord but rather between Sennacherib—the great king—and the Lord. 36:4  ^q Great king is a title similar to emperor.
36:5  ^r Who are you counting on: Judah had asked Egypt to help them (see 30:1-5  ^s).
36:6  ^t Egypt ... is completely unreliable: Isaiah argued the same case, pointing to the Lord as the only reliable source of help (31:1-3  ^u, 7  ^v; 39:7  ^w).

• A kind of reed that breaks easily grows near the Nile (see Ezek 29:6-7  ^x).
36:7  ^y We are trusting in the Lord our God: Ironically, the Assyrian chief of staff knew about and played on Isaiah’s message (26:4  ^z; 36:15  ^aa; 37:10  ^ab).

• Hezekiah showed his zeal for the Lord by tearing down the pagan shrines and altars (2 Kgs 18:4  ^ac), but the Assyrians mistakenly thought Hezekiah had angered God in the process.
36:8  ^ad At this time, cavalry mounted on horses was the newest military technology. The Assyrian chief of staff was mocking the Judeans because he knew that Judah had no trained men who knew how to ride.
36:10  ^ae The Lord himself told us: It was common for a king to claim the approval of a deity in destroying other kingdoms. This claim was consistent with Isaiah’s prophecy in 10:5-6  ^af.
36:11  ^ag Aramaic was the lingua franca used throughout the Assyrian Empire, understood by the elite but not by the common people of Judah.
Summary for Isa 36:13-20: 36:13-20  ^ah In the Assyrian chief of staff’s second speech, he claimed that his nation’s gods were more powerful than the God of Judah (cp. 10:9-10  ^ai). God’s ability to rescue his people was at stake. In the ensuing drama, the Lord shocked the Assyrian with his power (37:36-37  ^aj).
36:14  ^ak Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you: This public accusation against Hezekiah was intended to undermine the people’s confidence in him.
36:15  ^al Hezekiah demonstrated a strong faith in the Lord, unlike Ahaz (ch 7  ^am). Hezekiah’s faith would bring rescue, whereas Ahaz’s lack of faith brought him trouble (see 7:9  ^an).
Summary for Isa 36:16-17: 36:16-17  ^ao The Assyrian was tempting the people of Jerusalem with provisions that the Lord had promised to provide his obedient people (see 1:19  ^ap; 37:30-35  ^aq; Deut 8:7-9  ^ar). It was a tempting offer, but a counterfeit. And it covered up the reality of exile that would have followed (Isa 36:17  ^as).
36:19  ^at The populations of Hamath and Arpad had been relocated to Samaria, where the new local deities were the gods of Sepharvaim (2 Kgs 17:24  ^au). The logic of the argument made sense to an Assyrian. If the Assyrian gods defeated all the gods of the other nations and the God of the Israelite nation of Samaria, would they not also defeat the God of Judah?

‏ Isaiah 37

37:1  ^av Hezekiah responded to the threats by seeking the Lord’s favor.

• The king tore his clothes and put on burlap as a sign of mourning and prayer.
37:4  ^aw perhaps ... God has heard the Assyrian chief of staff ... defy the living God: Hezekiah’s hope was not based on Judah’s or his own goodness, or the presence of the Temple in Jerusalem; instead, it was based on God responding to Assyria’s blasphemy.
Summary for Isa 37:5-7: 37:5-7  ^ax God answered that he would deal with the Assyrians and rescue the remnant of his people from their distress (see 63:9  ^ay).
37:8  ^az Libnah was a city on the Philistine plain near Lachish. Sennacherib was preparing to fight both Egypt and Jerusalem when he sent word to Hezekiah.
37:9  ^ba King Tirhakah of Ethiopia was then the ruler of Egypt.
37:12  ^bb The argument was that Judah’s god, like the gods of other nations already conquered by Assyria, would be unable to save Judah (see also 36:18-20  ^bc).

• Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, ... Eden, and Tel-assar were cities in Mesopotamia.
Summary for Isa 37:14-20: 37:14-20  ^bd When he received Sennacherib’s boastful threat, Hezekiah returned to the Temple and prayed for rescue. His prayer stands in contrast to Ahaz’s response to danger decades earlier (see ch 7  ^be).
37:16  ^bf God of Israel: Hezekiah was not taken in by the false claims of Sennacherib that the Lord was powerless. In his prayer, Hezekiah acknowledged that, because the Lord is the Creator, he is God of all the kingdoms of the earth. The Lord is sovereign over all kingdoms.

• The mighty cherubim were located in the Temple atop the Ark of the Covenant, which was God’s throne in his Temple (see study note on Lev 16:2; see also Pss 80:1  ^bg; 99:1  ^bh).
37:20  ^bi you alone, O Lord, are God: Hezekiah was concerned for the Lord’s reputation, which Sennacherib had impugned. Hezekiah recognized that if the Lord defeated the Assyrians and their gods, his holy name would be glorified among all the nations of the world (cp. Exod 9:16  ^bj; 14:4  ^bk, 17-18  ^bl; Josh 2:9-11  ^bm; 1 Sam 4:7-8  ^bn).
37:21  ^bo Because you prayed: Prayer is powerful; it moved God’s heart and was part of the reason why the Lord answered with this message of hope.
37:22  ^bp The virgin daughter of Zion: Jerusalem is personified as a young woman who mocks the Assyrian king (see also 3:26  ^bq).
37:23  ^br Whom ... Against whom: Sennacherib’s speech was not so much an insult against Judah as it was against the Lord.
37:24  ^bs Isaiah seems to be familiar with the typical royal Assyrian boasts, including that they possessed the highest mountains. These words sound very much like those found in the annals of the Assyrian kings inscribed on the walls of their temples.
37:25  ^bt I have dug wells ... I stopped up all the rivers of Egypt: Sennacherib’s boasts demonstrate his attitude of independence. However, the Lord alone is sovereign over nature (42:15  ^bu; 43:19  ^bv; 44:27  ^bw).
37:26  ^bx I planned for you to crush ... into heaps of rubble: Assyria was God’s agent of destruction, but the Assyrians did not realize that they were only a tool in God’s hand (see ch 10  ^by), fulfilling what God had planned long before (14:24-27  ^bz).
37:28  ^ca you have raged against me: Assyria was utterly hostile to the Lord, which brought them even greater condemnation.
37:29  ^cb my hook ... my bit: The Assyrians would be led away like animals, just as they had led so many of their captives away.
Summary for Isa 37:30-35: 37:30-35  ^cc In this prophecy of salvation, Isaiah assured Hezekiah that Jerusalem would be spared and that the remnant was under God’s protection. The names of Isaiah and his sons anticipated God’s rescue (see 7:1–11:16  ^cd). The book’s record of God’s presence and rescue provided assurance that the Lord would always have a remnant that he will protect and rescue. 37:30  ^ce This year ... next year ... the third year: Because of the Assyrian siege and its destruction of agriculture, the people of Judah would not be able to plant and harvest as usual. The promise that life would resume after the siege assured them that God was with them and would provide as they carried out their everyday activities. They needed to develop their trust in God over a period of three calendar years in the confident expectation that God’s word would be true (cp. 30:15  ^cf, 18  ^cg). Perhaps the point was that after rescue from the Assyrians, it would be too late in the present year for fall planting. They would have to wait until fall in the second year to plant again, and they would reap their first crop in the spring and summer of the third year.
37:32  ^ch The passionate commitment of God includes his energetic zeal to keep his promise, the best guarantee his people could ever have (see also 9:7  ^ci).
37:33  ^cj armies ... arrow ... shields ... banks of earth: Despite their advanced military technology and great power, the Assyrians would not succeed against Jerusalem.
37:35  ^ck for the sake of my servant David: God had promised David a perpetual dynasty (see 9:6-7  ^cl; 2 Sam 7:8-17  ^cm).
37:36  ^cn The angel of the Lord was a special heavenly agent through whom God worked on earth. Often his role was to communicate special messages (see Gen 16:7-14  ^co), but sometimes he brought judgment (see 2 Sam 24:16  ^cp).

• killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers: The Lord began to fulfill what he had repeatedly promised—rescue of Jerusalem and judgment of Assyria (see Isa 10:16  ^cq, 33-34  ^cr; 30:31  ^cs; 31:8  ^ct).
37:38  ^cu One day: Sennacherib was probably killed in 681 BC, about twenty years after his withdrawal from Jerusalem.

• Esarhaddon was king of Assyria from 680–669 BC. It is ironic that Sennacherib, who mocked the Lord, was killed by his sons in the temple of his god.

‏ Isaiah 38

Summary for Isa 38:1-9: 38:1-9  ^cv The story of Hezekiah’s healing connects Hezekiah’s extension of life with Jerusalem’s relief from the Assyrians. The events of this story took place before Jerusalem’s rescue from the Assyrians but were placed in a thematic rather than chronological order. One theme is the importance of prayer (see 37:14-20  ^cw; 38:2-3  ^cx). The Lord does listen! Hezekiah had learned the lesson of trust that his father, Ahaz, refused. As a result, Judah and Jerusalem were spared total destruction by the Assyrians. Yet Hezekiah was not the Messiah, the Son of David promised in 7:14  ^cy; 9:1-7  ^cz; 11:1-16  ^da; 16:5  ^db; 32:1  ^dc, and 33:17-22  ^dd. Thus, these accounts of his failure and mortality (chs 38–39  ^de) prepare the reader for the revelation of the true Messiah that follows (chs 40–66  ^df). 38:1  ^dg About that time (literally in those days): This is a very general time statement. Hezekiah’s illness and subsequent healing probably preceded Jerusalem’s rescue (chs 36–37  ^dh), even though Isaiah places it afterward. Merodach-baladan’s reign in Babylon (39:1  ^di) ended before Sennacherib’s invasion in 701 BC. The order in the text indicates a connection between these two events (see 38:6  ^dj).
38:3  ^dk I have always been faithful to you: Hezekiah’s heart was right with the Lord for most of his reign (2 Kgs 18:1-5  ^dl), although his dependence on Egypt was a time of weakness when he did not act faithfully (Isa 31:1-9  ^dm).
38:5  ^dn the God of your ancestor David: Hezekiah faithfully walked in David’s footsteps (see 37:35  ^do; 38:1-22  ^dp).
38:6  ^dq I will rescue you ... I will defend this city: This promise refers to the rescue of Jerusalem (chs 36–37  ^dr); it also provides a greater context for understanding Hezekiah’s sickness and healing. Just as Hezekiah received another fifteen years, Jerusalem also received a temporary reprieve (see ch 39  ^ds).
Summary for Isa 38:9-20: 38:9-20  ^dt Hezekiah’s poem contains both lament (38:9-14  ^du) and praise (38:15-20  ^dv), although the praise is distinctly muted until the final verse.
38:10  ^dw enter the place of the dead? (literally enter the gates of Sheol?): This image comes from an ancient idea that people enter death through gates (see 14:9  ^dx). Old Testament believers did not understand the afterlife as the New Testament reveals it. It was a shadowy place where all the dead were together and where no praise of God existed (see 38:18  ^dy; Pss 88:10  ^dz; 115:17  ^ea).
38:11  ^eb Hezekiah lamented that if he died, he would not enjoy fellowship with God, his family, and his friends.
38:12  ^ec These images depicted the brevity of life (cp. 2 Cor 5:1  ^ed).
38:15  ^ee I will walk humbly: Hezekiah might have previously taken his life and good health for granted. Now he recognized that these gifts from the Lord can be withdrawn at any time.
38:16  ^ef God’s restoration of Hezekiah’s health also symbolized the restoration from exile that Judah would experience in the future.
Summary for Isa 38:21-22: 38:21-22  ^eg Hezekiah received a sign, reminiscent of another sign the prophet had offered Ahaz (7:11  ^eh). Ahaz and Hezekiah were two bookends to a long story. Ahaz represented the ungodly king and Hezekiah the godly king. The former brought disaster on his people, while the latter rescued his people (but see ch 39  ^ei).
38:22  ^ej Hezekiah could not go to the Temple with an infection (see Lev 13  ^ek), so going to the Temple signifies restored health.

‏ Isaiah 39

Summary for Isa 39:1-8: 39:1-8  ^el Hezekiah was exemplary in godliness, prayer, and care for the people of Jerusalem. But he failed the Lord by parading his financial and military strength before the envoys from Babylon. 39:1  ^em Merodach-baladan, the king of Babylon (722–710 and 704–703 BC), planned to rebel against Assyria and sought help from Hezekiah. His envoys visited after Hezekiah had been very sick and had recovered but before Sennacherib’s final attack in 701 BC.
39:2  ^en silver ... aromatic oils ... his armory: Showing these treasures demonstrated to Babylon’s envoys that Hezekiah had the resources to be a worthy ally.
Summary for Isa 39:6-7: 39:6-7  ^eo carried off to Babylon: This prophecy was given before the prophecy of the rescue of Jerusalem (37:35  ^ep). Although this pronouncement of judgment and exile comes as a surprise ending to the story of Hezekiah, the exile of both Israel and Judah had been in the background from the beginning (10:3-4  ^eq, 20-23  ^er). The Lord had promised that he would spare Judah and Jerusalem when the Assyrians attacked in 701 BC, but he had clearly revealed to Isaiah that worse things would come if they did not change their ways. God had demonstrated the truth of his sovereignty and trustworthiness in his defeat of the Assyrians, but that did not mean the people had changed. The only way the promises of 2:1-5  ^es and 4:2-6  ^et were going to be realized was through the fires of judgment (4:4  ^eu). Until the burning coal of exile was applied to the nation’s unclean lips (6:5-7  ^ev), their mission to the nations would fail.