seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Isaiah 37:1 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord. 2 He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. 3 They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment of birth and there is no strength to deliver them. 4 It may be that the Lord your God will hear the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the living God, and that he will rebuke him for the words the Lord your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant that still survives.”
5 When King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard—those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7 Listen! When he hears a certain report, I will make him want to return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.’”
8 When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.
9 Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the king of Cush,[a] was marching out to fight against him. When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word: 10 “Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.’ 11 Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered? 12 Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my predecessors deliver them—the gods of Gozan, Harran, Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath or the king of Arpad? Where are the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah?”
14 Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: 16 “Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 17 Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.
18 “It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands. 19 They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. 20 Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, Lord, are the only God.[b]”
21 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22 this is the word the Lord has spoken against him:
“Virgin Daughter Zion
despises and mocks you.
Daughter Jerusalem
tosses her head as you flee.
23 Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes in pride?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
24 By your messengers
you have ridiculed the Lord.
And you have said,
‘With my many chariots
I have ascended the heights of the mountains,
the utmost heights of Lebanon.
I have cut down its tallest cedars,
the choicest of its junipers.
I have reached its remotest heights,
the finest of its forests.
25 I have dug wells in foreign lands[c]
and drunk the water there.
With the soles of my feet
I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.’
despises and mocks you.
Daughter Jerusalem
tosses her head as you flee.
23 Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes in pride?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
24 By your messengers
you have ridiculed the Lord.
And you have said,
‘With my many chariots
I have ascended the heights of the mountains,
the utmost heights of Lebanon.
I have cut down its tallest cedars,
the choicest of its junipers.
I have reached its remotest heights,
the finest of its forests.
25 I have dug wells in foreign lands[c]
and drunk the water there.
With the soles of my feet
I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.’
26 “Have you not heard?
Long ago I ordained it.
In days of old I planned it;
now I have brought it to pass,
that you have turned fortified cities
into piles of stone.
27 Their people, drained of power,
are dismayed and put to shame.
They are like plants in the field,
like tender green shoots,
like grass sprouting on the roof,
scorched[d] before it grows up.
Long ago I ordained it.
In days of old I planned it;
now I have brought it to pass,
that you have turned fortified cities
into piles of stone.
27 Their people, drained of power,
are dismayed and put to shame.
They are like plants in the field,
like tender green shoots,
like grass sprouting on the roof,
scorched[d] before it grows up.
28 “But I know where you are
and when you come and go
and how you rage against me.
29 Because you rage against me
and because your insolence has reached my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth,
and I will make you return
by the way you came.
and when you come and go
and how you rage against me.
29 Because you rage against me
and because your insolence has reached my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth,
and I will make you return
by the way you came.
30 “This will be the sign for you, Hezekiah:
“This year you will eat what grows by itself,
and the second year what springs from that.
But in the third year sow and reap,
plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
31 Once more a remnant of the kingdom of Judah
will take root below and bear fruit above.
32 For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant,
and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
will accomplish this.
and the second year what springs from that.
But in the third year sow and reap,
plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
31 Once more a remnant of the kingdom of Judah
will take root below and bear fruit above.
32 For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant,
and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
will accomplish this.
33 “Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria:
“He will not enter this city
or shoot an arrow here.
He will not come before it with shield
or build a siege ramp against it.
34 By the way that he came he will return;
he will not enter this city,”
declares the Lord.
35 “I will defend this city and save it,
for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!”
or shoot an arrow here.
He will not come before it with shield
or build a siege ramp against it.
34 By the way that he came he will return;
he will not enter this city,”
declares the Lord.
35 “I will defend this city and save it,
for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!”
36 Then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! 37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.
38 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer killed him with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.
a. Isaiah 37:9 That is, the upper Nile region
b. Isaiah 37:20 Dead Sea Scrolls (see also 2 Kings 19:19); Masoretic Text you alone are the Lord
c. Isaiah 37:25 Dead Sea Scrolls (see also 2 Kings 19:24); Masoretic Text does not have in foreign lands.
d. Isaiah 37:27 Some manuscripts of the Masoretic Text, Dead Sea Scrolls and some Septuagint manuscripts (see also 2 Kings 19:26); most manuscripts of the Masoretic Text roof / and terraced fields
I'm sorry.... I gave away the ending yesterday. There's all this bad news and strife everywhere I just couldn't hold off until today.... and Isaiah hasn't exactly been staying in chronological order. At any rate.... Hezekiah did pray.... then God stepped in and ran the king of Assyria off. To finish off the job.... while the human king of Assyria was worshiping a fake god.... the human king's own son killed him with a sword and took over.
So since I'm not a real witness.... this is from Bible-studys.org.
Horrified by the demand of the Assyrians, Hezekiah “rent his clothes” (a sign of mourning), went into “the house of the Lord” (the temple), and sent for “Isaiah the prophet.” Recognizing that “this is a day of trouble,” the king went to “prayer” for the “remnant” of survivors within the besieged city. When Isaiah arrived, he spoke with great confidence, promising a miraculous deliverance by the Lord, who will send a “blast” (ruach, “spirit”), upon the invaders.
Thus, God promised to send a spirit of confusion upon the invaders by means of a “rumor” (report), of the advance of the Egyptians led by “Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia,” who was the most famous king of Egypt’s Twenty-fifth Dynasty. This may also explain why Sennacherib himself did not come to Jerusalem to demand its surrender.
Hezekiah took the “letter” into the temple and “spread it before the Lord” as an act of his utter dependence upon God. In his prayer, he acknowledges that the “Lord of hosts” is the “God of Israel” who dwells “between the cherubim,” where His glory was manifested on the Ark of the Covenant. In response to Hezekiah’s prayer, God promises a divine reprieve of continued national prosperity when Judah will “take root downward, and bear fruit upward”.
So all that stuff about Egypt.... it was about a "rumor". That human king of Assyria thought Egypt was allied with Judah. Egypt at the time, apparently, had the best human king in a dynasty.... so the human king, believing the rumor..... was already afraid..... and when God killed 185.000 soldiers while they slept.... well it was too much..... they packed up and went home. This is from the easy English site.
This verse may give the impression that Sennacherib’s death happened very soon afterwards. In fact, Sennacherib ruled the Assyrian empire for another 20 years. But he never again entered the country called Judah.
- What made Sennacherib return to his own country was probably the news about Tirhakah (see verse 9). Sennacherib had just lost huge numbers of his own soldiers.
- Sennacherib died in 681 BC. Two of his sons murdered him.
Ancient records show that the Assyrians defeated Tirhakah in a battle at Eltekeh in 701 BC. Eltekeh was a city west of Jerusalem.
Sennacherib knows that he must return home. But he makes a final effort to force Hezekiah to give in to the Assyrians.
- The cities that Sennacherib mentions are all in the area between the rivers called Tigris and Euphrates. These rivers are in the modern country called Iraq.
In 701 BC the Assyrians were bearing down on Judah...... Hezekiah had the good sense to go to God. Everything worked out.... it took 20 years for God to finish the task by having the Assyrian king run through by one of his own sons.... but 20 years to God is like an afterthought. The human king of the Empire of Assyria was only an afterthought..... now that's power.... the king of the Assyrian Empire was only a "oh yeah" moment to God.
I started working outside the home when I was old enough to get a work permit.... I was 15 going into my senior year of high school. I had been working in the home for several years.... I started doing payroll for my granddad when I was in the 10th grade. Since then, I've had so many jobs that remembering them has been sporadic entertainment since I retired due to that cancer that caught me. I painted Pepper's poultry processing plant. I sold pizzas at Joses Pizza and Tamale on the boardwalk in Ocean City. I cleaned houses. I cleaned hotels and banks. I drove a cab. I worked in daycare and I worked in private daycare. I was a health food store manager. I drove a cab. I worked the graveyard shift at Waffle House and Ranch House for years. I worked the breakfast shift at the Orlando Hilton for a while. I did payroll for a company that transcribed SEC hearings. I even worked tending the fuel tanks at Fort Story, Va. for NAWSI. I've worked a lot of jobs..... I even worked in the computer rooms at NSA.
There is one thing I was always taught right away..... "who's the boss". The "boss" was the most important person at work. I learned early in life.... "listen to the boss".
Judah was a Theocracy with a token king. In a Theocracy.... God is in charge. Hezekiah knew who was "boss". Hezekiah took it to the "boss" and the "boss" made the decision and took care of it.
