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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>Isaiah 37 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/isaiah/37.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; 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<a href="/context/jonah/3-5.htm" title="So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.">Jonah 3:5-6</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-2.htm">Isaiah 37:2</a></div><div class="verse">And he sent Eliakim, who <i>was</i> over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth, unto Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">Unto Isaiah the prophet.</span>—At last, then, the people did “see their teacher” (<a href="/isaiah/30-20.htm" title="And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not your teachers be removed into a corner any more, but your eyes shall see your teachers:">Isaiah 30:20</a>). In that supreme hour of calamity the prophet, who had been despised and derided, was their one resource. What could he do to extricate them from the evil net which was closing round them, and to vindicate the honour of his God?<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-3.htm">Isaiah 37:3</a></div><div class="verse">And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day <i>is</i> a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and <i>there is</i> not strength to bring forth.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">The children are come to the birth.</span>—The bold language of the text stands where we should use an adjective of which we half forget the meaning. Things had come to such a pass that all plans and counsels were literally <span class= "ital">abortive. </span>(Comp. <a href="/context/isaiah/26-17.htm" title="Like as a woman with child, that draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and cries out in her pangs; so have we been in your sight, O LORD.">Isaiah 26:17-18</a>, and <a href="/hosea/13-13.htm" title="The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come on him: he is an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children.">Hosea 13:13</a> for a like simile.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-4.htm">Isaiah 37:4</a></div><div class="verse">It may be the LORD thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up <i>thy</i> prayer for the remnant that is left.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">Lift up thy prayer for the remnant . . .</span>—Isaiah’s characteristic words (<a href="/isaiah/1-9.htm" title="Except the LORD of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like to Gomorrah.">Isaiah 1:9</a>; <a href="/isaiah/10-21.htm" title="The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.">Isaiah 10:21</a>) had impressed itself on the king’s mind. Now that town after town of Judah had fallen into Sennacherib’s hands (forty-six, according to his inscriptions—<span class= "ital">Records of the Past, </span>i. 38), those who were gathered within the walls of Jerusalem were as a mere remnant of the people.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-5.htm">Isaiah 37:5</a></div><div class="verse">So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">So the servants . . .</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">And </span><span class= "bld">. . .</span> The Authorised Version suggests that there was only one coming of the messengers. Possibly. however, the words imply a withdrawal between the delivery of their message and their coming a second time to receive his answer.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-6.htm">Isaiah 37:6</a></div><div class="verse">And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say unto your master, Thus saith the LORD, Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">The servants of the king of Assyria.</span>—Not the usual word for “servants,” which might include high officers of state, but a less honourable one (<span class= "ital">na‘arâ</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>like <span class= "ital">puer </span>in Latin, or <span class= "ital">garçon </span>in French. He speaks of Rabshakeh (probably the king’s cup-bearer) as though he were only, after all, a <span class= "ital">valet.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-7.htm">Isaiah 37:7</a></div><div class="verse">Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">I will send a blast upon him.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">I will put a spirit in him. </span>The Authorised Version suggests the idea of some physical calamity, like that which actually destroyed the Assyrian army. Here, however, the “spirit,” stands for the impulse, strong and mighty, which overpowers previous resolves. (Comp. <a href="/isaiah/30-28.htm" title="And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the middle of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.">Isaiah 30:28</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">He shall hear a rumour.</span>—The words admit of being explained either as a prediction rising out of a purely supernatural foresight, or as resting on some secret intelligence which Israel had received as to the movements of Tirhakah.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-8.htm">Isaiah 37:8</a></div><div class="verse">So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">Warring against Libnah . . . Lachish.</span>—Both names occur in <a href="/joshua/15-39.htm" title="Lachish, and Bozkath, and Eglon,">Joshua 15:39</a>; <a href="/joshua/15-42.htm" title="Libnah, and Ether, and Ashan,">Joshua 15:42</a>, as belonging to Judah. The step would seem to indicate a strategic movement, intended to check the march of Tirhakah’s army; but in our ignorance of the topography, we can settle nothing further. By some writers Libnah has been identified with Pelusium, or some other town in the Delta of the Nile. The narrative seems, perhaps, to suggest something more than a transfer of the attack from one small fortress in Judah to another; but that is all that can be said.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-9.htm">Isaiah 37:9</a></div><div class="verse">And he heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He is come forth to make war with thee. And when he heard <i>it</i>, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,</div>(9) <span class= "bld">Tirhakah.</span>—The third of the twenty-fifth, or Ethiopian dynasty of kings, So, or Sabaco, with whom Hoshea, the last king of Israel, allied himself, being the first (<a href="/2_kings/17-4.htm" title="And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison.">2Kings 17:4</a>). He is described in Assurbanipal’s inscriptions (<span class= "ital">Records of the Past, </span>i. 60) as king of Mizr and Cush—<span class= "ital">i.e.</span>, Egypt and Ethiopia. The policy of Hezekiah’s counsellors had led them to court his alliance, as in Isaiah 30, 31. Now, however, the Egyptian army was at least mobilised. “Rahab” was no longer “sitting still” (<a href="/isaiah/30-7.htm" title="For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.">Isaiah 30:7</a>).<p><span class= "bld">When he heard it.</span>—The message is in substance a repetition of its predecessors, more defiant, perhaps, as if in answer to the threatened attack of Tirhakah’s armies, which Sennacherib could scarcely fail to connect with Hezekiah’s confident hope of deliverance.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-12.htm">Isaiah 37:12</a></div><div class="verse">Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, <i>as</i> Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which <i>were</i> in Telassar?</div>(12) <span class= "bld">Gozan . . .</span>—The induction drawn from the enumeration of conquered nations is continued. Strictly speaking, Sargon, the father of Sennacherib, was the founder of a new dynasty; but the “fathers” are, as commonly in the formulæ of Eastern kings, the predecessors of the reigning king. The position of Gozan is defined by <a href="/2_kings/17-6.htm" title="In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.">2Kings 17:6</a> as being on the Habor, or <span class= "ital">Khabûr, </span>which flows into the Tigris from the east, above Mosul. Haran is probably identical with Abraham’s resting-place (<a href="/genesis/11-31.htm" title="And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran, and dwelled there.">Genesis 11:31</a>), and the Charran of Josephus and St. Stephen’s speech (<a href="/acts/7-4.htm" title="Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelled in Charran: and from there, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein you now dwell.">Acts 7:4</a>). “Rezeph” is identified with the Rhesepher of Ptolemy (<a href="/isaiah/5-13.htm" title="Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.">Isaiah 5:13</a>; <a href="/isaiah/5-6.htm" title="And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor dig; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it.">Isaiah 5:6</a>) below Thapeacus, between the ’Euphrates and Tadmor (= Palmyra). Telassar is probably an altered form of Tel-Assur (the hill of Assur), and was probably a new name given to a conquered city, after the manner in which Shalmaneser records that he gave names to cities that he had taken belonging to Akhuni, the son of Adini (<span class= "ital">Records of the Past, iii.</span> 87, v. 30). In the patronymic we may trace <span class= "ital">the sons of Eden </span>of this verse. In <a href="/amos/1-5.htm" title="I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holds the scepter from the house of Eden: and the people of Syria shall go into captivity to Kir, said the LORD.">Amos 1:5</a> we have a Beth-Eden named as connected with Damascus; and in <a href="/ezekiel/27-23.htm" title="Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad, were your merchants.">Ezekiel 27:23</a> an “Eden” connected with Haran and Asshur, as carrying on traffic with Tyre. The latter is probably identical with that named by Sennacherib.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-13.htm">Isaiah 37:13</a></div><div class="verse">Where <i>is</i> the king of Hamath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?</div>(13) <span class= "bld">Where is the king of Hamath . . .</span>—The question which had been asked in <a href="/isaiah/36-19.htm" title="Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim? and have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?">Isaiah 36:19</a> as to the gods of the cities named is now asked of their kings, and the implied answer is that they are in the dungeons of Nineveh.<p><span class= "bld">Hena, and Ivah.</span>—The sites have not been identified, but Anah is found as the name of a city on the Euphrates, and Ivah may be the same as the Ava of <a href="/2_kings/17-24.htm" title="And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelled in the cities thereof.">2Kings 17:24</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-14.htm">Isaiah 37:14</a></div><div class="verse">And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up unto the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.</div>(14) <span class= "bld">Hezekiah received the letter.</span>—The Hebrew noun is plural, as though the document consisted of more than one sheet.<p><span class= "bld">And spread it before the Lord.</span>—The act was one of mute appeal to the Supreme Arbiter. The <span class= "ital">corpus delicti </span>was, as it were, laid before the judge, and then the appellant offered up his prayer. Mr. Cheyne quotes a striking parallel from the “Annals of Assurbanipal” (<span class= "ital">Records of the Past, vii.</span> 67), who, on receiving a defiant message from the King of Elam, went into the Temple of Ishtar, and, reminding the goddess of all he had done for her, besought her aid, and received an oracle from her as a vision of the night.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-16.htm">Isaiah 37:16</a></div><div class="verse">O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest <i>between</i> the cherubims, thou <i>art</i> the God, <i>even</i> thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and earth.</div>(16) <span class= "bld">That dwellest between the cherubims.</span>—A like phrase in <a href="/psalms/18-10.htm" title="And he rode on a cherub, and did fly: yes, he did fly on the wings of the wind.">Psalm 18:10</a> refers, apparently, to the dark thunder-clouds of heaven. Here, probably, the reference is to the glory-cloud which was the symbol of the Divine presence, and which rested, when it manifested itself, between the cherubim of the ark (<a href="/numbers/7-89.htm" title="And when Moses was gone into the tabernacle of the congregation to speak with him, then he heard the voice of one speaking to him from off the mercy seat that was on the ark of testimony, from between the two cherubim: and he spoke to him.">Numbers 7:89</a>), those figures also symbolising the elemental forces of the heavens. (Comp. <a href="/psalms/68-33.htm" title="To him that rides on the heavens of heavens, which were of old; see, he does send out his voice, and that a mighty voice.">Psalm 68:33</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Thou art the God, even thou alone.</span>—The absolute monotheism of the faith of Israel is placed in strong antithesis to the polytheism of Rabshakeh (<a href="/isaiah/37-12.htm" title="Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Telassar?">Isaiah 37:12</a>). (Comp. <a href="/jeremiah/10-11.htm" title="Thus shall you say to them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.">Jeremiah 10:11</a>, and Isaiah 40-42)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-18.htm">Isaiah 37:18</a></div><div class="verse">Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations, and their countries,</div>(18) <span class= "bld">Of a truth, Lord . . .</span>—The facts of Rabshakeh’s induction are admitted, but the inference denied, on the ground that the cases were not parallel. The gods of the nations had been cast into the fire (an alternative to their being taken as trophies for the temples of Asshur and Ishtar), but this could never happen to Jehovah, of whom there was no graven image, and He would show that He alone was ruler of the earth and of the heavens.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-21.htm">Isaiah 37:21</a></div><div class="verse">Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent unto Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria:</div>(21) <span class= "bld">Then Isaiah the son of Amoz . . .</span>—According to the rectified chronology, the grand burst of prophecy which follows was the last of Isaiah’s recorded utterances. As such, it will be interesting to note any points of contact that present themselves either with his earlier prophecies or with the great prophetic poem (Isaiah 40-66) traditionally ascribed to him. The prayer of Hezekiah, if he was not present at its utterance, was reported to him, and in the name of Jehovah he was commissioned to reply to it.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-22.htm">Isaiah 37:22</a></div><div class="verse">This <i>is</i> the word which the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, <i>and</i> laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.</div>(22) <span class= "bld">The virgin, the daughter of Zion.</span>—The same phrase had been used in <a href="/isaiah/23-12.htm" title="And he said, You shall no more rejoice, O you oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon: arise, pass over to Chittim; there also shall you have no rest.">Isaiah 23:12</a> of Zidon. There the virgin had been “oppressed,” <span class= "ital">i.e., “</span>ravished” by the invaders, but Zion was to escape the ravisher, and laugh his lust to scorn.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-23.htm">Isaiah 37:23</a></div><div class="verse">Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted <i>thy</i> voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? <i>even</i> against the Holy One of Israel.</div>(23) <span class= "bld">Whom hast thou reproached . . .</span>—The manifold iteration of the question emphasises the force of the answer. The “Holy One of Israel,” at whom the scornful revellers had sneered (<a href="/isaiah/30-11.htm" title="Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.">Isaiah 30:11</a>), was now seen to be the one mighty deliverer.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-24.htm">Isaiah 37:24</a></div><div class="verse">By thy servants hast thou reproached the Lord, and hast said, By the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon; and I will cut down the tall cedars thereof, <i>and</i> the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the height of his border, <i>and</i> the forest of his Carmel.</div>(24) <span class= "bld">By the multitude of my chariots.</span>—The words refer apparently to the taunt of <a href="/isaiah/36-8.htm" title="Now therefore give pledges, I pray you, to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you be able on your part to set riders on them.">Isaiah 36:8</a>. The inscriptions of the Assyrian king are full of like boasts. Shalmaneser, “Trackless paths and difficult mountains <span class= "bld">. . .</span> I penetrated” (<span class= "ital">Records of the Past, iii.</span> 85): and Assumacirpal, “Rugged mountains, difficult paths, which for the passage of chariots were not suited, I passed” (<span class= "ital">Ibid. </span>p. 43).<p><span class= "bld">To the sides of Lebanon.</span>—The passage of Lebanon was not necessarily implied in Sennacherib’s invasion of Palestine. Possibly the words had become a kind of proverb for surmounting obstacles. Lebanon and Carmel are joined together, as in <a href="/isaiah/33-9.htm" title="The earth mourns and languishes: Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down: Sharon is like a wilderness; and Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits.">Isaiah 33:9</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-25.htm">Isaiah 37:25</a></div><div class="verse">I have digged, and drunk water; and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of the besieged places.</div>(25) <span class= "bld">I have digged, and drunk water . . .</span>—This, again, was one of the common boasts of the Assyrian conquerors. It was Sennacherib’s special glory, as recorded in his inscriptions, that he had provided cities with water which were before scantily supplied, that he had made wells even in the deserts (<span class= "ital">Records of the Past, i.</span> 29, 31, 9:23).<p><span class= "bld">All the rivers of the besieged places.</span>—As the words stand, they suggest the thought that the Assyrian army could cut off the supply of water as well as provide it, and so connect themselves with the Rabshakeh’s taunt in <a href="/isaiah/36-12.htm" title="But Rabshakeh said, Has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words? has he not sent me to the men that sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own urine with you?">Isaiah 36:12</a>. Their true meaning, however, is probably, as in <a href="/isaiah/19-6.htm" title="And they shall turn the rivers far away; and the brooks of defense shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither.">Isaiah 19:6</a>; <a href="/micah/7-12.htm" title="In that day also he shall come even to you from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain.">Micah 7:12</a>, “the rivers or <span class= "ital">canals </span>of Egypt,” a form being used for Egypt which also conveys the idea of “besieged fortresses.” So taken, the words are a defiant threat against Tirhakah. Not all the branches of the Nile in the Delta should protect his cities. His armies would, as it were, dry them up.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-26.htm">Isaiah 37:26</a></div><div class="verse">Hast thou not heard long ago, <i>how</i> I have done it; <i>and</i> of ancient times, that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste defenced cities <i>into</i> ruinous heaps.</div>(26) <span class= "bld">Hast thou not heard . . .</span>—The speech of Sennacherib ends, and that of Jehovah begins. The adverb “long ago” should be connected with the words that follow. The events of history had all been foreseen and ordered, as in the remote past, by the counsels of Jehovah. Kings and armies were but as His puppets in the drama of the world’s history. The words “hast thou not heard” suggest the thought that Isaiah assumes that Sennacherib had heard of his prophecies, or those of his fore-runners, as to the purposes of Jehovah—an assumption which, looking to the fact that he had ministers who were well acquainted with Hebrew (<a href="/isaiah/36-12.htm" title="But Rabshakeh said, Has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words? has he not sent me to the men that sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own urine with you?">Isaiah 36:12</a>), was in itself probable enough.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-27.htm">Isaiah 37:27</a></div><div class="verse">Therefore their inhabitants <i>were</i> of small power, they were dismayed and confounded: they were <i>as</i> the grass of the field, and <i>as</i> the green herb, <i>as</i> the grass on the housetops, and <i>as corn</i> blasted before it be grown up.</div>(27) <span class= "bld">Therefore.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">and.</span><p><span class= "bld">They were as the grass of the field.</span>—One symbol of weakness follows after another. The “grass upon the housetops” was, in this respect, a proverbial emblem (<a href="/psalms/129-6.htm" title="Let them be as the grass on the housetops, which wither before it grows up:">Psalm 129:6</a>). The italics in <span class= "ital">as corn </span>seem to suggest some error in transcription. The words as they stand give <span class= "ital">a field before the blades; </span>those in <a href="/2_kings/19-26.htm" title="Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the house tops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up.">2Kings 19:26</a>, <span class= "ital">a blasting.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-28.htm">Isaiah 37:28</a></div><div class="verse">But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.</div>(28) <span class= "bld">Thy abode . . .</span>—The three words include, in the common speech of the Hebrews, the whole of human life in every form of activity (<a href="/psalms/121-8.htm" title="The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even for ever more.">Psalm 121:8</a>; <a href="/psalms/139-2.htm" title="You know my sitting down and my rising up, you understand my thought afar off.">Psalm 139:2</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-29.htm">Isaiah 37:29</a></div><div class="verse">Because thy rage against me, and thy tumult, is come up into mine ears, therefore will I put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.</div>(29) <span class= "bld">Therefore will I put my hook in thy nose . . .</span>—The Assyrian sculptures represent both beasts and men as dragged in this way (<a href="/ezekiel/38-4.htm" title="And I will turn you back, and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you forth, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armor, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:">Ezekiel 38:4</a>). (Comp. the same image in <a href="/isaiah/30-28.htm" title="And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the middle of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.">Isaiah 30:28</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-30.htm">Isaiah 37:30</a></div><div class="verse">And this <i>shall be</i> a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat <i>this</i> year such as groweth of itself; and the second year that which springeth of the same: and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof.</div>(30) <span class= "bld">And this shall be a sign unto thee.</span>—The prophet now turns to Hezekiah, and offers, as was his wont (<a href="/isaiah/7-11.htm" title="Ask you a sign of the LORD your God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.">Isaiah 7:11</a>; <a href="/isaiah/38-8.htm" title="Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.">Isaiah 38:8</a>), a sign within the horizon of the nearer future as the pledge of the fulfilment of a prediction which had a wider range. It was then autumn, probably near the equinox, which was the beginning of a new year. The Assyrian invasion had stopped all tillage in the previous spring, and the people had to rely upon the spontaneous products of the fields. In the year that was about to open they would be still compelled to draw from the same source, but in twelve months’ time the land would be clear of the invaders, and agriculture would resume its normal course, and the fulfilment of this prediction within the appointed limit of time would guarantee that of the wider promise that follows.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-31.htm">Isaiah 37:31</a></div><div class="verse">And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward:</div>(31) <span class= "bld">And the remnant that is escaped.</span>—We note the “remnant” of the familiar formula of Isaiah’s earlier days. The name of Shear-jashub had not ceased to be an omen of good (<a href="/isaiah/7-3.htm" title="Then said the LORD to Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, you, and Shearjashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field;">Isaiah 7:3</a>). And that remnant should be as the scion from which should spring in due course the goodly tree of the future (<a href="/isaiah/6-13.htm" title="But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.">Isaiah 6:13</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-32.htm">Isaiah 37:32</a></div><div class="verse">For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.</div>(32) <span class= "bld">The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.</span>—Here, again, the prophet returns in his old age to the formula of the earlier days of <a href="/isaiah/9-7.htm" title="Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, on the throne of David, and on his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from now on even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.">Isaiah 9:7</a>, with an implied reference to the grand promise with which it had then been associated.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-33.htm">Isaiah 37:33</a></div><div class="verse">Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it.</div>(33) <span class= "bld">Nor come before it with shields.</span>—The clause points to the two forms of attack: (1) the invaders marching to the assault, protected by their serried shields against the darts and stones which were flung by hand or from engines by the besieged; and (2) the earthworks which were piled up to make the attack on the walls more feasible. (Comp. <a href="/habakkuk/1-10.htm" title="And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn to them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust, and take it.">Habakkuk 1:10</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/4-2.htm" title="And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about.">Ezekiel 4:2</a>.) Isaiah’s prediction is not only that Jerusalem will not be taken, but that the enemy, though now encamped around it, will not even proceed to the usual operations of a siege.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-35.htm">Isaiah 37:35</a></div><div class="verse">For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.</div>(35) <span class= "bld">For mine own sake . . .</span>—The words set forth, as it were, the two motives of Jehovah’s action: “for His own sake,” as asserting His majesty against the blasphemy of the Assyrians; for “David’s sake,” as mindful of the promise made to him, showing, in the spirit of the second commandment, that the good as well as the evil influences of men survive, and that a later generation may profit by the good that was in its predecessor, as well as suffer for its guilt.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-36.htm">Isaiah 37:36</a></div><div class="verse">Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they <i>were</i> all dead corpses.</div>(36) <span class= "bld">Then the angel of the Lord.</span>—The words do not exclude—rather, as interpreted by <a href="/1_chronicles/21-14.htm" title="So the LORD sent pestilence on Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.">1Chronicles 21:14</a>, they imply—the action of some form of epidemic disease, dysentery or the plague, such as has not seldom turned the fortunes of a campaign, spreading, it may be, for some days, and then, aggravated by atmospheric conditions, such as the thunderstorm implied in <a href="/isaiah/29-6.htm" title="You shall be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.">Isaiah 29:6</a>; <a href="/context/isaiah/30-27.htm" title="Behold, the name of the LORD comes from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:">Isaiah 30:27-30</a>, culminating in one night of horror. History, as written from the modern stand-point, would dwell on the details of the pestilence. To Isaiah, who had learnt to see in the winds the messengers of God (<a href="/psalms/104-4.htm" title="Who makes his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:">Psalm 104:4</a>), it was nothing else than the “angel of the Lord.” So he would have said of the wreck of the Armada, “<span class= "ital">Afflavit Deus et dissipantur inimici” </span>or of Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow, “He sendeth forth his ice like morsels: who is able to abide his frost” (<a href="/psalms/147-17.htm" title="He casts forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold?">Psalm 147:17</a>). The Assyrian records, as might be expected, make no mention of the catastrophe, but a singular parallel is presented by the account which Herodotus gives (ii. 141), on the authority of the Egyptian priests, of the destruction of Sennacherib’s army when he invaded Egypt, then under the rule of Sethon, a priest of Ptha or Hephæstos. The priest-king prayed to his gods, and the Assyrian army, then encamped before Pelusium, were attacked by myriads of field-mice, who gnawed the straps of quivers, bows, and shields, and so made all their weapons useless, and led to their taking flight. Therefore, the historian adds, there stood a statue of Sethon in the Temple of Hephaestos at Memphis, with a mouse in one hand and with the inscription, “Whosoever looks at me let him fear the gods.” Some writers (<span class= "ital">e.g., </span>Ewald and Canon Rawlinson) have been led by this to the conclusion that the pestilence fell on Sennacherib’s army at Pelusium, and not at Jerusalem. It may be questioned, however, whether, even admitting that the narrative in its present form may be later than the exile, the probabilities are not in favour of the Biblical record, compiled as it was by writers who had documents and inherited traditions, rather than of the travellers’ tales which the vergers of Egyptian temples told to the good Herodotus.<p><span class= "bld">In the camp of the Assyrians</span>.—Josephus (<span class= "ital">Bell. Jud., </span>v. 7, 2) names a site in the outskirts of Jerusalem which in his time still bore this name. The narrative of Isaiah leaves room for a considerable interval between his prophecy and the dread work of the destroyer (<a href="/2_kings/19-35.htm" title="And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.">2Kings 19:35</a>). “In that night” does not necessarily imply immediate sequence, the demonstrative adjective being used, like the Latin <span class= "ital">iste, </span>or <span class= "ital">ille, </span>for “that memorable night.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-37.htm">Isaiah 37:37</a></div><div class="verse">So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.</div>(37) <span class= "bld">So Sennacherib . . .</span>—We have to remember that the Assyrian king had been engaged in the siege of Libnah, probably also in an Egyptian expedition, which from some cause or other was unsuccessful. The course of events was probably this: that in Egypt he heard of the ravages of the pestilence, returned to find his army too weak to fight, and then, abandoning all further action in the south, withdrew to Nineveh.<p><span class= "bld">Departed, and went and returned.</span>—We are reminded by the three synonyms of the proverbial “<span class= "ital">abiit, evasit, erupit</span>” of Cicero, <span class= "ital">in Catil. ii.</span> (Del.).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/37-38.htm">Isaiah 37:38</a></div><div class="verse">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 Armenia: and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.</div>(38) <span class= "bld">And it came to pass.</span>—The Assyrian inscriptions fill up the gap of twenty years between the events which appear here, as if in immediate sequence, with five campaigns in the north and east of the Assyrian Empire, chiefly against the Babylonians, who revolted again under the son of Merôdach-baladan.<p><span class= "bld">Nisroch.</span>—Some experts (Oppert and Schrader) have found the name in the Khorsabad inscriptions, in a prayer of Sargon to Nisroch as the patron of marriage, but the identification is disputed by others, as G. Smith, Sayce, and Cheyne. The etymology of the name, as meaning the “eagle” deity, is also one of the open questions of Assyrian research.<p><span class= "bld">Adrammelech and Sharezer</span>.—The former name appears in that of a deity of Sepharvaim in <a href="/2_kings/17-31.htm" title="And the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.">2Kings 17:31</a>—its probable meaning being “the king of glory,” that of Sharezer, “the ruler preserves,” or, in a variant form, Sanatzu, “Sin (the moon-god) preserves.” The Assyrian records, so far as they are yet interpreted, make no mention of the murder, but an inscription of Esar-haddon’s, mutilated at the beginning, begins with an account of his victory over rebel princes, and the narrative of his campaign speaks of snowy mountains, which at least suggest Armenia (Heb. Ararat), (<span class= "ital">Records of the Past, </span>iii. 101). Armenian traditions make the two parricides the founders of royal houses, the Sasserunians and Aizerunians. From the latter, in which the name of Sennacherib was common, sprang the Byzantine Emperor, Leo the Armenian. Esar-haddon is further memorable as having peopled Samaria with the mixed population of Babylonians, Cutheans, and others (<a href="/2_kings/17-24.htm" title="And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelled in the cities thereof.">2Kings 17:24</a>; <a href="/ezra/4-10.htm" title="And the rest of the nations whom the great and noble Asnapper brought over, and set in the cities of Samaria, and the rest that are on this side the river, and at such a time.">Ezra 4:10</a>), from whom the later Samaritans were descended—as having taken Zidon and deported its inhabitants (<span class= "ital">Records of the Past, iv.</span>, p. 111)—as having left in scriptions at <span class= "ital">Nahr-el-kelb, </span>near Beyrout, in which he describes himself as “King of Egypt, Thebes, and Ethiopia,” as having probably been the “king of Assyria” who carried Manasseh bound in fetters to Babylon. The will of Sennacherib (<span class= "ital">Records of the Past, </span>i. 136), giving him his chief treasures, and renaming him with a new title of sovereignty (Assur-Ebil-Muni-pal, <span class= "ital">i.e., </span>“Assur is lord, the establisher of the son “), seems to imply that he was a younger son, whom the fondness of Sennacherib had exalted above his elder brothers, who accordingly revenged themselves by the murder of their father.<p><span class= "bld"><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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