2 Kings 19

2 KINGS CHAPTER 19

Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah’s Counsel

• • • When Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and went into the house of Yahweh. Then he sent Eliakim, who was the palace supervisor, Shebna, who was the court secretary, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah, who was the son of Amoz. They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: ‘This is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace. It is like when a baby is ready to leave the birth canal, but the mother lacks the strength to push it through. Perhaps Yahweh your God will hear what the Rabshakeh said on behalf of his master, the king of Assyria, who sent him to mock the living God. When Yahweh your God hears, perhaps He will rebuke him for what he said. So, pray for this remnant that is left.’”

• • • • ESV Study Bible writes, “…The contrast between the wicked Jehoram (6:30-31) and the pious Hezekiah is particularly interesting. The besieged Jehoram is unwilling to wait for God and looks instead to remove the head of God’s prophet, while Hezekiah humbly sends a message to the prophet Isaiah to request prayer to God (19:4). It is a day of great humiliation and powerlessness. The remnant, in this context, likely comprises those from the northern kingdom (Israel) who sought refuge in Judah, and specifically Jerusalem, in the face of prior Assyrian aggression, along with those of the southern kingdom (Judah) who survive Sennacherib’s siege…The only hope for this remnant is that the Lord, who is truly the living God and not simply one false god among many, will act to defend his name…”

• • • • On the reference to childbirth, Guzik says, “Hezekiah put these words in the mouth of his messengers to Isaiah to express the total calamity of the situation. This was a proverbial expression for a disaster – a woman so exhausted by labor that she could not complete the birth, so it was likely that both mother and child would die.”

• • • When King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah, Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘This is what Yahweh says: “Don’t be afraid because of the words you have heard- the words with which the Assyrian king’s officers have insulted Me. Look, I will put a spirit in him, and he will hear a rumor to return to his own land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.”’”

• • • • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges writes, “…God would give to Sennacherib and his soldiers such an inward motion or impulse that the news which should be brought to them should alarm them and drive them away. We know from Saul’s history how an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him (1 Samuel 16:14). In another wise there should come a troubling spirit upon the Assyrians, which should make them ready to take alarm at anything…”

• • • When the Rabeshakeh heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he returned and found him fighting against Libnah. The king had heard the following report about Tirhakah, the king of Cush: “Look, he has set out to fight you.” So he sent messengers to Hezekiah again with this instruction, “Tell Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust deceive you when He says, “Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” Look, you’ve heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries- they’ve destroyed them completely. Do you really think you will be delivered? Were the nations that my ancestors destroyed- Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar- delivered by their gods? Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of Lair, the king of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king Ivvah?’”

• • • • NLT Illustrated Study Bible says, “Sennacherib had dispatched his officers and forces to Jerusalem while he was attacking Lachish…He had now moved eight miles to the northwest, to Libnah.”

• • • • ESV Archaeology Study Bible notes, “Tirhakah king of Cush commanded an Egyptian army that marched into Palestine in 701 BC to aid the rebels. He would later become pharaoh of Egypt (690-664 BC). Sennacherib claims to have defeated this Egyptian force at Eltekeh, about 12 miles east of the Mediterranean, on the eastern border of the coastal plain.”

• • • • ESV Study Bible writes, “The argument is subtly different on this second speech by the Assyrians. In 18:19-35 the Rabshakeh claimed that Hezekiah was deceiving the people about what would happen if they trusted the Lord (18:29-30); here he claims that Hezekiah is the one deceived by the God in whom he trusts. This is a God, according to Sennacherib, who is not only weak but duplicitous; and he invites Hezekiah to turn his back on this deity and save himself from the fate of all those other kings who went to their doom…”

Hezekiah’s Prayer

• • • Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the house of Yahweh and spread it out before Yahweh. And Hezekiah prayed before Yahweh saying: “O Yahweh, God of Israel, who is enthroned between the cherubim. You are the God, You alone, over all the kingdoms of this earth. You made the heavens and the earth. Incline Your ear, O Yahweh, and hear; open Your eyes, O Yahweh, and see. Hear the words Sennacherib sent to mock the living God. It is true, O Yahweh, that the kings of Assyria have utterly destroyed the nations and their lands. He has thrown their gods into the fire because they were not gods, but only the product of human hands made from wood and stone, so they were destroyed. So now, O Yahweh our God, please deliver us from his hand so that all the kingdoms of the earth will know that You, O Yahweh, You alone are God.”

• • • • ESV Study Bible writes, “Hezekiah’s response on this occasion is not to send messengers to Isaiah, asking the prophet to pray (v. 4), but rather to pray himself to God, who is here envisaged as dwelling in a special way in the Jerusalem temple and as being invisibly enthroned in the Most Holy Place on two enormous cherubim…This God is God alone, creator of heaven and earth, and therefore God…of all the kingdoms of the earth…Hezekiah now asks that Jerusalem be delivered for the glory of God himself; that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone.”

• • • • Many commentaries cite the language used by Hezekiah in v. 18 as indicating that the Israelites believed that there were no literally existing spiritual beings that were worshiped as gods by the other nations. Rather, that these nations literally worshiped idols that they made from stone or wood. However, as Dr. Michael Heiser, along with other scholars of the ancient Near East point out, this was not at all what these people believed. Rather, the language is polemic. In the NT, Paul even affirms the reality of the spiritual entity behind these idols.

• • • • • “The biblical prophets love to make fun of idol making. It seems so stupid to carve an idol from wood or stone or make one from clay and then worship it. But ancient people did not believe their idols were actually images of stone or wood. We misread the biblical writers if we think that.” (“The Unseen Realm,” Heiser, p. 35)

• • • • “What ancient idol worshipers believed was that the objects they made were inhabited by their gods. This is why they performed ceremonies to ‘open the mouth’ of the statue. The mouth (and nostrils) had to be ritually opened for the spirit of the deity to move in and occupy, a notion inspired by the idea that one needs to breathe to live. The idol first had to be animated with the very real spiritual presence of the deity. Once that was done, the entity was localized for worship and bargaining.” (“The Unseen Realm,” Heiser, p. 35-36)

• • • • “This is easily proven from ancient texts. There are accounts, for example, of idols being destroyed. There is no sense of fear in those accounts that the god was dead. Rather, there was only a need to make another idol.” (“The Unseen Realm,” Heiser, p. 36)

• • • • “Paul’s warning in 1 Corinthians 10:18-22, alluded to previously, reflects this thinking. Earlier in the letter, he told the Corinthians that an idol had no power and was, in and of itself, nothing (1 Cor 8:4). While Gentiles had other lords and gods, for believers there was only one true God. But in chapter 10, he clarifies that he also knows that sacrifices to idols are actually sacrifices to demons- evil members of the spiritual world.” (“The Unseen Realm,” Heiser, p. 36)

• • • • If you think about it, this makes perfect sense in light of what Hezekiah just said about Yahweh being “enthroned between the cherubim” in the temple. Hezekiah doesn’t think that by destroying the temple in Jerusalem, the Assyrians could actually defeat or de-throne Yahweh- the creator of the heavens and the earth. It would be silly to suggest such a thing. Yahweh does in fact eventually allow the temple to be destroyed.

Isaiah Prophesies Sennacherib’s Fall

• • • Then Amoz’s son Isaiah sent a message to Hezekiah, “This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says: ‘I have heard your prayer to Me concerning Assyria’s King Sennacherib. This is the word that Yahweh has spoken against him:

      • “The virgin daughter Zion despises you and mocks you. Daughter Jerusalem shakes her head as you flee.”

• • • • • NET Bible writes, “Zion (Jerusalem) is pictured here as a young, vulnerable daughter whose purity is being threatened by the would-be Assyrian rapist. The personification hints at the reality which the young girls of the city would face if the Assyrians conquer it. Shaking the head was a mocking gesture of derision.”

• • • • “Who is it that you have mocked and ridiculed? Who is it that you have raised your voice against and raised your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel!”

• • • • • “This divine title pictures the Lord as the sovereign king who rules over his covenant people and exercises moral authority over them.” (NET Bible)

• • • “Through your messengers you have mocked Yahweh. You have said, ‘With my many chariots I have climbed up the high mountains, to the utmost heights of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars and its best cypresses. I have entered its most remote regions, its densest forests. I dug wells and drank foreign waters. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all of Egypt’s streams.’”

• • • • • “In his annals, Sennacherib told of scaling high mountain passes and felling Lebanon’s great trees. Sennacherib felt invincible…” (NLT Illustrated Study Bible)

• • • • “Haven’t you heard? I ordained it long ago. From days of old I planned what I have now brought to pass- that you would turn fortified cities into piles of rubble while their inhabitants, shorn of strength, are terrified and ashamed. They are like plants in the field, like tender grass, like grass growing on the rooftops – scorched by the east wind.”

• • • • • “Having quoted the Assyrian king’s arrogant words in vv. 23-24, the Lord now speaks to the king. Heb ‘Have you not heard?’ The rhetorical question expresses the Lord’s amazement that anyone might be ignorant of what he is about to say.” (NET Bible)

• • • • • “His great mistake has been to imagine that what he accomplished in his military campaigns has been achieved through his own strength. In reality, it was the Lord who determined it long ago. It was God who planned from days of old that Sennacherib would turn fortified cities into heaps of ruins… so his pride in his mighty accomplishments is foolishness. In fact, Assyria is merely the rod of God’s anger (cf Isa 10:5-11)…” (ESV Study Bible)

• • • • On the plant comparisons, NET Bible says, “The metaphor(s) emphasizes how short-lived these seemingly powerful cities really were. See Ps 90:5-6; Isa 40:6-8, 24.”

• • • • “I know where you live, when you go out, and when you come in. Because you have raged against Me and the uproar you have created has reached My ears, I will put My hook in your nose and My bit in your mouth, and I will lead you back the way you came.”

• • • • • On the hook and bit reference, NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible says, “This metaphor may reflect actual Assyrian practice. After his second campaign against Egypt in 671 BC, King Esarhaddon erected several victory steles, the most famous of which depicts Esarhaddon as leading two prisoners, apparently Baal I of Tyre and Taharqa/Tirhakah of Egypt, by ropes tied to a ring that pierced their lips. Ashurbanipal, his successor, further records an act of humiliation against Uate, king of Arabia, in which he ‘pierced his cheeks with the sharp-edged spear…put the ring to his jaw, placed a dog collar around his neck and made him guard the bar of the east gate of Nineveh.”

• • • ‘This will be the sign for you, Hezekiah: “This year you will eat what grows on its own, and the next year what grows on its own from that. But in the third year, plant seeds and harvest crops, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above. Because a remnant will go out from Jerusalem, and survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of Yahweh will accomplish this.”’

• • • • • “At this point the word concerning the king of Assyria (vv. 21-28) ends and the Lord again directly addresses Hezekiah and the people (see v. 20)” (NET Bible)

• • • • • “The second part of Isaiah’s prophecy looks beyond the withdrawal of the Assyrians from Judah. The sign that Judah will recover from the Assyrian assault is to be found in the way the survivors will be provided for in the short term: initially they will be able to survive only because of the crops that spring up from what is already in the ground, but in the third year they will resume normal agricultural practice, able to bear fruit.” (ESV Study Bible)

• • • • “The theme of the remnant occurs frequently in the OT. God’s preservation of his people often serves as a promise of his care for them in the distant future (see Isa 4:2-6; 9:1-7; Zeph 3:8-20; cp Rev 7:1-12). God’s people can be assured of their survival, for the commitment of the Lord…will make this happen.” (NLT Illustrated Study Bible)

• • • ‘Therefore this is what Yahweh says regarding the king of Assyria:

• • • • “He will not come into this city, nor will he shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with a shield, nor will he build a siege ramp against it. He will go back the way he came, and he will not enter the city- Yahweh declares. I will defend this city and rescue it, for My sake, and for the sake of My servant, David.”’”

• • • • • “The third part of Isaiah’s prophecy makes explicit the circumstances in which Sennacherib will return home by the way that he came…He will return home before the army encamped outside the city of Jerusalem takes military action against it- for the sake of God’s servant David.” (ESV Study Bible)

Defeat and Death of Sennacherib

• • • That night an angel of Yahweh went out and killed 185,000 in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning- there were all the dead bodies. So Assyria’s King Sennacherib withdrew. He went home and lived in Nineveh. One day, as he was worshiping in the house of his god, Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer killed him with the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon succeeded him as king.

• • • • ESV Study Bible writes, “The event precipitating Sennacherib’s ‘return’ to Nineveh when he ‘heard’ about it…involved enormous casualties suffered by his army outside Jerusalem, with 185,000 struck down in one night by the angel of the Lord. Here is God’s remarkable answer to Hezekiah’s prayer, ‘O Lord our God, save us, please, from his hand (v. 19), and the fulfillment of God’s promise in vv. 32-34.”

• • • • NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible remarks, “Nowhere in his own account of his campaign does Sennacherib claim to have taken Jerusalem, nor even to have received tribute from Hezekiah in the immediate aftermath of the siege. He tells us only that after his return to Nineveh (the occasion of which he does not describe), Hezekiah sent tribute. His silence on the way in which the siege ended when compared to what he said in the same account about other kings in the region requires some explanation. Our Biblical sources give us some hints in the direction of this when they tell of a mysterious reversal suffered by the Assyrians while Jerusalem lay at their mercy…A considerable time after these events, in the middle of the fifth century BC, the Greek historian Herodotus heard an Egyptian story about Sennacherib’s campaign that also ascribed the Assyrian withdrawal from Palestine to a miracle…”

• • • • Guzik notes, “Between 2 Kings 19:36 and 2 Kings 19:37, 20 years passed. Perhaps Sennacherib thought he had escaped the judgment of God, but he hadn’t. He met the bitter end of death at the end of swords held by his own sons.”

• • • • On Sennacherib’s death, NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible adds, “The Babylonian Chronicle reports the death of Sennacherib as taking place in 681 BC, during an insurrection led by his son, but not Esarhaddon, the son who ascended to the throne in the aftermath. Esarhaddon describes the events surrounding his accession to the throne at greater length. He identifies himself as the youngest son of Sennacherib, yet chosen successor by his father. He claims that he drove the assassins out of the country. A letter to Esarhaddon, found in the royal archives of the Sargonid Dynasty at Nineveh, identifies one of the assassins as Arad-Mullissu- probably the Adrammelek of the Biblical text…”

• • • • ESV Study Bible adds a few more details, “…Sennacherib’s assassins flee to Ararat, known to the Assyrians as Urartu, a kingdom of eastern Asia Minor that flourished from the ninth to the sixth centuries BC. Esarhaddon ruled Assyria from 681-669 BC. In his own records he describes the events surrounding his accession to the throne, referring to his ‘elder brothers who…went out of their senses…and butted each other- like kids- to take over the kingship,’ and of the ‘flight of the usurpers…to an unknown country.’”

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