Read Isaiah chapter 37 online with LogosAI Bible study tools, highlights, and cross references.
Isaiah 37 is part of “Woes and Hezekiah's Crisis” (28–39) in the outline of Isaiah.
Isaiah 37 summary
In this chapter we have a further repetition of the story which we had before in the book of Kings concerning Sennacherib. In the foregoing chapter we had him conquering and threatening to conquer. In this chapter we have him falling, and at last fallen, in answer to prayer, and in fulfillment of many of the prophecies which we have met with in the foregoing chapters. Here we have, I. Hezekiah's pious reception of Rabshakeh's impious discourse (Isa 37:1). II. The gracious message he sent to Isaiah to desire his prayers (Isa 37:2-5). III. The encouraging answer which Isaiah sent to him from God, assuring him that God would plead his cause against the king of Assyria (Isa 37:6, Isa 37:7). IV. An abusive letter which the king of Assyria sent to Hezekiah, to the same purport with Rabshakeh's speech (Isa 37:8-13). V. Hezekiah's humble prayer to God upon the receipt of this letter (Isa 37:14-20). VI. The further full answer which God sent him by Isaiah, promising him that his affairs should shortly take a happy turn, that the storm should blow over and every thing should appear bright and serene (v. 21-35). VII. The immediate accomplishment of this prophecy in the ruin of his army (v. 36) and the murder of himself (v. 37, 38). All this was largely opened, 2 Kings 19.
Source: Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706–21; Romans–Revelation completed by Nonconformist ministers). Public domain. Digital text: Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org).
1 And when the King Hezekiah heard it, he rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth and came into the House of the Lord.
2 And he sent Eliakim the stewarde of the house, aud Shebna the chanceller, with the Elders of the Priestes, clothed in sackcloth vnto Isaiah the Prophet, the sonne of Amoz.
3 And they sayd vnto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of tribulation and of rebuke and blasphemie: for the children are come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring foorth.
4 If so be the Lord thy God hath heard the wordes of Rabshakeh, whom the King of Asshur his master hath sent to raile on the liuing God, and to reproch him with wordes which the Lord thy God hath heard, then lift thou vp thy prayer for the remnant that are left.
5 So the seruants of the King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
6 And Isaiah sayde vnto them, Thus say vnto your master, Thus saith the Lord, Be not afrayd of the wordes that thou hast heard, wherewith the seruants of the king of Asshur haue blasphemed me.
7 Beholde, I wil send a blast vpon him, and he shall heare a noyse, and returne to his owne land, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his owne land.
8 So Rabshakeh returned, and found the King of Asshur fighting against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.
9 He heard also men say of Tirhakah, King of Ethiopia, Beholde, he is come out to fight against thee: and when he heard it, he sent other messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
10 Thus shall ye speake to Hezekiah King of Iudah, saying, Let not thy God deceiue thee, in whom thou trustest, saying, Ierusalem shall not be giuen into the hand of the King of Asshur.
11 Beholde, thou hast heard what the Kings of Asshur haue done to all lands in destroying them, and shalt thou be deliuered?
12 Haue the gods of the nations deliuered them, which my fathers haue destroyed? as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden, which were at Telassar?
13 Where is the King of Hamath, and the King of Arpad, and the King of the citie of Sepharuaim, Hena and Iuah?
14 So Hezekiah receiued the letter of the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went vp into the House of the Lord, and Hezekiah spread it before the Lord.
15 And Hezekiah prayed vnto the Lord, saying,
16 O Lord of hostes, God of Israel, which dwellest betweene the Cherubims, thou art very God alone ouer all the kingdomes of the earth: thou hast made the heauen and the earth.
17 Encline thine eare, O Lord, and heare: open thine eyes, O Lord, and see, and heare all the wordes of Saneherib, who hath sent to blaspheme the liuing God.
18 Trueth it is, O Lord, that the Kings of Asshur haue destroyed all lands, and their countrey,
19 And haue cast their gods in ye fire: for they were no gods, but the worke of mans hands, euen wood or stone: therefore they destroyed them.
20 Nowe therefore, O Lord our God, saue thou vs out of his hand, that all the kingdomes of the earth may knowe, that thou onely art the Lord.
21 Then Isaiah the sonne of Amoz sent vnto Hezekiah, saying, Thus sayth the Lord God of Israel, Because thou hast prayed vnto me, concerning Saneherib king of Asshur,
22 This is the worde that the Lord hath spoken against him, the virgine, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorne: the daughter of Ierusalem, hath shaken her head at thee.
23 Whome hast thou railed on and blasphemed? and against whome hast thou exalted thy voyce, and lifted vp thine eyes on hie? euen against the holy one of Israel.
24 By thy seruants hast thou railed on the Lord, and sayd, By the multitude of my charets I am come vp to the top of the mountaines to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut downe the hie cedars thereof, and the faire firre trees thereof, and I will goe vp to the heightes of his top and to the forest of his fruitfull places.
25 I haue digged and drunke the waters, and with the plant of my feete haue I dryed all the riuers closed in.
26 Hast thou not heard howe I haue of olde time made it, and haue formed it long ago? and should I now bring it, that it should be destroyed, and layde on ruinous heapes, as cities defensed?
27 Whose inhabitants haue small power, and are afrayd and confounded: they are like the grasse of the field and greene herbe, or grasse on the house tops, or corne blassed afore it be growen.
28 But I know thy dwelling, and thy going out, and thy comming in, and thy fury against me.
29 Because thou ragest against me, and thy tumult is come vnto mine eares, therefore will I put mine hooke in thy nostrels, and my bridle in thy lips, and wil bring thee backe againe the same way thou camest.
30 And this shalbe a signe vnto thee, O Hezekiah, Thou shalt eate this yeere such as groweth of it selfe: and the second yeere, such things as growe without sowing: and in the third yeere, sowe ye and reape, and plant vineyards, and eate the fruite thereof.
31 And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Iudah, shall againe take roote downward and beare fruite vpward.
32 For out of Ierusalem shall goe a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeale of the Lord of hostes shall doe this.
33 Therefore thus sayth the Lord, concerning the King of Asshur, He shall not enter into this citie, nor shoote an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a mount against it.
34 By the same way that he came, he shall returne, and not come into this citie, saith the Lord.
35 For I will defend this citie to saue it, for mine owne sake, and for my seruant Dauids sake.
36 Then the Angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the campe of Asshur an hundreth, fourescore, and fiue thousand: so when they arose early in the morning, beholde, they were all dead corpses.
37 So Saneherib king of Asshur departed, and went away and returned and dwelt at Nineueh.
38 And as he was in the temple worshipping of Nisroch his god, Adramelech and Sharezer his sonnes slewe him with the sword, and they escaped into the land of Ararat: and Esarhaddon his sonne reigned in his steade.