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Selected Verse: Isaiah 37:36 - Strong Concordance

Verse	Translation	Text
Isa 37:36	Strong Concordance	Then the angel [04397] of the LORD [03068] went forth [03318], and smote [05221] in the camp [04264] of the Assyrians [0804] a hundred [03967] and fourscore [08084] and five [02568] thousand [0505]: and when they arose early [07925] in the morning [01242], behold, they were all dead [04191] corpses [06297].
	King James	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 were all dead corpses.

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
Some attribute the destruction to the agency of the plague (see on Isa 33:24), which may have caused Hezekiah's sickness, narrated immediately after; but Isa 33:1, Isa 33:4, proves that the Jews spoiled the corpses, which they would not have dared to do, had there been on them infection of a plague. The secondary agency seems, from Isa 29:6; Isa 30:30, to have been a storm of hail, thunder, and lightning (compare Exo 9:22-25). The simoon belongs rather to Africa and Arabia than Palestine, and ordinarily could not produce such a destructive effect. Some few of the army, as Ch2 32:21 seems to imply, survived and accompanied Sennacherib home. HERODOTUS (2.141) gives an account confirming Scripture in so far as the sudden discomfiture of the Assyrian army is concerned. The Egyptian priests told him that Sennacherib was forced to retreat from Pelusium owing to a multitude of field mice, sent by one of their gods, having gnawed the Assyrians' bow-strings and shield-straps. Compare the language (Isa 37:33), "He shall not shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields," which the Egyptians corrupted into their version of the story. Sennacherib was as the time with a part of his army, not at Jerusalem, but on the Egyptian frontier, southwest of Palestine. The sudden destruction of the host near Jerusalem, a considerable part of his whole army, as well as the advance of the Ethiopian Tirhakah, induced him to retreat, which the Egyptians accounted for in a way honoring to their own gods. The mouse was the Egyptian emblem of destruction. The Greek Apollo was called Sminthian, from a Cretan word for "a mouse," as a tutelary god of agriculture, he was represented with one foot upon a mouse, since field mice hurt corn. The Assyrian inscriptions, of course, suppress their own defeat, but nowhere boast of having taken Jerusalem; and the only reason to be given for Sennacherib not having, amidst his many subsequent expeditions recorded in the monuments, returned to Judah, is the terrible calamity he had sustained there, which convinced him that Hezekiah was under the divine protection. RAWLINSON says, In Sennacherib's account of his wars with Hezekiah, inscribed with cuneiform characters in the hall of the palace of Koyunjik, built by him (a hundred forty feet long by a hundred twenty broad), wherein even the Jewish physiognomy of the captives is portrayed, there occurs a remarkable passage; after his mentioning his taking two hundred thousand captive Jews, he adds, "Then I prayed unto God"; the only instance of an inscription wherein the name of GOD occurs without a heathen adjunct. The forty-sixth Psalm probably commemorates Judah's deliverance. It occurred in one "night," according to Kg2 19:35, with which Isaiah's words, "when they arose early in the morning," &c., are in undesigned coincidence. they . . . they--"the Jews . . . the Assyrians."

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

Some attribute the destruction to the agency of the plague (see on Isa 33:24), which may have caused Hezekiah's sickness, narrated immediately after; but Isa 33:1, Isa 33:4, proves that the Jews spoiled the corpses, which they would not have dared to do, had there been on them infection of a plague. The secondary agency seems, from Isa 29:6; Isa 30:30, to have been a storm of hail, thunder, and lightning (compare Exo 9:22-25). The simoon belongs rather to Africa and Arabia than Palestine, and ordinarily could not produce such a destructive effect. Some few of the army, as Ch2 32:21 seems to imply, survived and accompanied Sennacherib home. HERODOTUS (2.141) gives an account confirming Scripture in so far as the sudden discomfiture of the Assyrian army is concerned. The Egyptian priests told him that Sennacherib was forced to retreat from Pelusium owing to a multitude of field mice, sent by one of their gods, having gnawed the Assyrians' bow-strings and shield-straps. Compare the language (Isa 37:33), "He shall not shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields," which the Egyptians corrupted into their version of the story. Sennacherib was as the time with a part of his army, not at Jerusalem, but on the Egyptian frontier, southwest of Palestine. The sudden destruction of the host near Jerusalem, a considerable part of his whole army, as well as the advance of the Ethiopian Tirhakah, induced him to retreat, which the Egyptians accounted for in a way honoring to their own gods. The mouse was the Egyptian emblem of destruction. The Greek Apollo was called Sminthian, from a Cretan word for "a mouse," as a tutelary god of agriculture, he was represented with one foot upon a mouse, since field mice hurt corn. The Assyrian inscriptions, of course, suppress their own defeat, but nowhere boast of having taken Jerusalem; and the only reason to be given for Sennacherib not having, amidst his many subsequent expeditions recorded in the monuments, returned to Judah, is the terrible calamity he had sustained there, which convinced him that Hezekiah was under the divine protection. RAWLINSON says, In Sennacherib's account of his wars with Hezekiah, inscribed with cuneiform characters in the hall of the palace of Koyunjik, built by him (a hundred forty feet long by a hundred twenty broad), wherein even the Jewish physiognomy of the captives is portrayed, there occurs a remarkable passage; after his mentioning his taking two hundred thousand captive Jews, he adds, "Then I prayed unto God"; the only instance of an inscription wherein the name of GOD occurs without a heathen adjunct. The forty-sixth Psalm probably commemorates Judah's deliverance. It occurred in one "night," according to Kg2 19:35, with which Isaiah's words, "when they arose early in the morning," &c., are in undesigned coincidence.

they . . . they--"the Jews . . . the Assyrians."

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
Then the angel of the Lord went forth - This verse contains the record of one of the most remarkable events which have occurred in history. Many attempts have been made to explain the occurrence which is here recorded, and to trace the agencies or means which God employed. It may be observed that the use of the word 'angel' here does not determine the manner in which it was done. So far as the word is concerned, it might have been accomplished either by the power of an invisible messenger of God - a spiritual being commissioned for this purpose; or it might have been by some second causes under the direction of an angel - as the pestilence, or a storm and tempest; or it might have been by some agents sent by God whatever they were - the storm, the pestilence, or the simoom, to which the name angel might have been applied. The word 'angel' (מלאך mal'âk) from לאך lâ'ak to send) means properly one sent, a messenger, from a private person Job 1:14; from a king Sa1 16:19; Sa1 19:11, Sa1 19:14, Sa1 19:20. Then it means a messenger of God, and is applied: (1) to an angel (Exo 23:20; Sa2 14:16; et al.); (2) to a prophet Hag 1:13; Mal 3:1; (3) to a priest Ecc 5:5; Mal 2:7. The word may be applied to any messenger sent from God, whoever or whatever that may be. Thus, in Psa 104:4, the winds are said to be his angels, or messengers: Who maketh the winds (רוחות rûachôth) his angels (מלאכיו male'âkâyv); The flaming fire his ministers. The general sense of the word is that of ambassador, messenger, one sent to bear a message, to execute a commission, or to perform any work or service. It is known that the Jews were in the habit of tracing all events to the agency of invisible beings sent forth by God to accomplish his purposes in this world. There is nothing in this opinion that is contrary to reason; for there is no more improbability in the existence of a good angel than there is in the existence of a good man, or in the existence of an evil spirit than there is in the existence of a bad man. And there is no more improbability in the supposition that God employs invisible and heavenly messengers to accomplish his purposes, than there is that he employs man. Whatever, therefore, were the means used in the destruction of the Assyrian army, there is no improbability in the opinion that they were under the direction of a celestial agent sent forth to accomplish the purpose. The chief suppositions which have been made of the means of that destruction are the following: 1. It has been supposed that it was by the direct agency of an angel, without any second causes. But this supposition has not been generally adopted. It is contrary to the usual modes in which God directs the affairs of the world. His purposes are usually accomplished by some second causes, and in accordance with the usual course of events. Calvin supposes that it was accomplished by the direct agency of one or more angels sent forth for the purpose. 2. Some have supposed that it was accomplished by Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, who is supposed to have pursned Sennacherib, and to have overthrown his army in a single night near Jerusalem. But it is sufficient to say in reply to this, that there is not the slightest historical evidence to support it; and had this been the mode, it would have been so recorded, and time fact would have been stated. 3. It has been attributed by some, among whom is Prideaux (Connection, vol. i. p. 143) and John E. Faber (the notes at Harmer's Obs., i. 65), to the hot pestilential wind which often prevails in the East, and which is often represented as suddenly destroying travelers, and indeed whole caravans. This wind, called sam, simum, samiel, or simoom, has been usually supposed to be poisonous, and almost instantly destructive to life. It has been described by Mr. Bruce, by Sir R. K. Porter, by Niebuhr, and by others. Prof. Robinson has examined at length the supposition that the Assyrian army was destroyed by this wind, and has stated the results of the investigations of recent travelers. The conclusion to which he comes is, that the former accounts of the effects of this wind have been greatly exaggerated, and that the destruction of the army of the Assyrians cannot be attributed to any such cause. See the article winds, in his edition of Calmet's Dictionary. Burckhardt says of this wind, whose effects have been regarded as so poisonous and destructive, 'I am perfectly convinced that all the stories which travelers, or the inhabitants of the towns of Egypt and Syria, relate of the simoom of the desert are greatly exaggerated, and I never could hear of a single well-authenticated instance of its having proved mortal to either man or beast.' Similar testimony has been given by other modern travelers; though it is to be remarked that the testimony is rather of a negative character, and does not entirely destroy the possibility of the supposition that this so often described pestilential wind may in some instances prove fatal. It is not, however, referred to in the Scripture account of the destruction of Sennacherib; and whatever may be true of it in the deserts of Arabia or Nubia, there is no evidence whatever that such poisonous effects are ever experienced in Palestine. 4. It has been attributed to a storm of hail, accompanied with thunder and lightning. This is the opinion of Vitringa, and seems to accord with the descriptions which are given in the prophecy of the destruction of the army in Isa 29:6; Isa 30:30. To this opinion, as the most probable, I have been disposed to incline, for although these passages may be regarded as figurative, yet the more natural interpretation is to regard them as descriptive of the event. We know that such a tempest might be easily produced by God, and that violent tornadoes are not unfrequent in the East. One of the plagues of Egypt consisted in such a tremendous storm of hail accompanied with thunder, when 'the fire ran along the ground,' so that 'there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail,' and so that 'the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast' Exo 9:22-25. This description, in its terror, its suddenness, and its ruinous effects, accords more nearly with the account of the destruction of Sennacherib than any other which has been made. See the notes at Isa 30:30, for a remarkable description of the officer of a storm of hail. 5. It has been supposed by many that it was accomplished by the pestilence. This is the account which Josephus gives (Ant. x. 1. 5), and is the supposition which has been adopted by Rosenmuller, Doderlin, Michaelis, Hensler, and many others. But there are two objections to this supposition. One is, that it does not well accord with the descritption of the prophet Isa 29:6; Isa 30:30; and the other, and more material one is, that the plague does not accomplish its work so suddenly. This was done in a single night; whereas, though the plague appears suddenly, and has been known to destroy whole armies, yet there is no recorded instance in which it has been so destructive in a few hours as in this case. It may be added, also, that the plague does not often leave an army in the manner described here. One hundred and eighty five thousand were suddenly slain. The survivors, if there were any, as we have reason to suppose Isa 37:37, fled, and returned to Nineveh. There is no mention made of any who lingered, and who remained sick among the slain. Nor is there any apprehension mentioned, as having existed among the Jews of going into the camp, and stripping the dead, and bearing the spoils of the army into the city. Had the army been destroyed by the plague, such is the fear of the contagion in countries where it prevails, that nothing would have induced them to endanger the city by the possibility of introducing the dreaded disease. The account leads us to suppose that the inhabitants of Jerusalem immediately sallied forth and stripped the dead, and bore the spoils of the army into the city (see the notes at Isa 33:4, Isa 33:24). On the whole, therefore, the most probable supposition seems to be, that, if any secondary causes were employed, it was the agency of a violent tempest - a tempest of mingled hail and fire, which suddenly descended upon the mighty army. Whatever was the agent, however, it was the hand of God that directed it. It was a most fearful exhibition of his power and justice; and it furnishes a most awful threatening to proud and haughty blasphemers and revilers, and a strong ground of assurance to the righteous that God will defend them in times of peril. It may be added, that Herodotus has given an account which was undoubtedly derived from some rumour of the entire destruction of the Assyrian army. He says (ii. 141) that when Sennacherib was in Egypt and engaged in the siege of Pelusium, an Egyptian priest prayed to God, and God heard his prayer, and sent a judgment upon him. 'For,' says he, 'a multitude of mice gnawed to pieces in one night both the bows and the rest of the armor of the Assyrians, and that it was on that account that the king, when he had no bows left, drew off his army from Pelusium.' This is probably a corruption of the history which we have here. At all events, the account in Herodotus does not conflict with the main statement of Isaiah, but is rather a confirmation of that statement, that the army of Sennacherib met with sudden discomfiture. And when they arose - At the time of rising in the morning; when the surviving part of the army arose, or when the Jews arose, and looked toward the camp of the Assyrians.

The Scofield Bible Commentary, by Cyrus Ingerson Scofield, [1917]
angel (See Scofield) - (Heb 1:4).

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
To this culminating prophecy there is now appended an account of the catastrophe itself. "Then (K. And it came to pass that night, that) the angel of Jehovah went forth and smote (vayyakkeh, K. vayyakh) in the camp of Asshur a hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when men rose up in the morning, behold, they were all lifeless corpses. Then Sennacherib king of Asshur decamped, and went forth and returned, and settled down in Nineveh. And it cam to pass, as he was worshipping in the temple of Misroch, his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons (L. chethib omits 'his sons') smote him with the sword; and when they escaped to the land of Ararat, Esarhaddon ascended the throne in his stead." The first pair of histories closes here with a short account of the result of the Assyrian drama, in which Isaiah's prophecies were most gloriously fulfilled: not only the prophecies immediately preceding, but all the prophecies of the Assyrian era since the time of Ahaz, which pointed to the destruction of the Assyrian forces (e.g., Isa 10:33-34), and to the flight and death of the king of Assyrian (Isa 31:9; Isa 30:33). If we look still further forward to the second pair of histories (chapters 38-39), we see from Isa 38:6 that it is only by anticipation that the account of these closing events is finished here; for the third history carries us back to the period before the final catastrophe. We may account in some measure for the haste and brevity of this closing historical fragment, from the prophet's evident wish to finish up the history of the Assyrian complications, and the prophecy bearing upon it. But if we look back, there is a gap between Isa 37:36 and the event narrated here. For, according to Isa 37:30, there was to be an entire year of trouble between the prophecy and the fulfilment, during which the cultivation of the land would be suspended. What took place during that year? There can be no doubt that Sennacherib was engaged with Egypt; for (1.) when he made his second attempt to get Jerusalem into his power, he had received intelligence of the advance of Tirhakah, and therefore had withdrawn the centre of his army from Lachish, and encamped before Libnah (Isa 37:8-9); (2.) according to Josephus (Ant. x. 1, 4), there was a passage of Berosus, which has been lost, in which he stated that Sennacherib "made an expedition against all Asia and Egypt;" (3.) Herodotus relates (ii. 141) that, after Anysis the blind, who lost his throne for fifty years in consequence of an invasion of Egypt by the Ethiopians under Sabakoa, but who recovered it again, Sethon the priest of Hephaestus ascended the throne. The priestly caste was so oppressed by him, that when Sanacharibos, the king of the Arabians and Assyrians, led a great army against Egypt, they refused to perform their priestly functions. but the priest-king went into the temple to pray, and his God promised to help him. He experienced the fulfilment of this prophecy before Pelusium, where the invasion was to take place, and where he awaited the foe with such as continued true to him. "Immediately after the arrival of Sanacharibos, an army of field-mice swarmed throughout the camp of the foe, and devoured their quivers, bows, and shield-straps, so that when morning came on they had to flee without arms, and lost many men in consequence. This is the origin of the stone of Sethon in the temple of Hephaestus (at Memphis), which is standing there still, with a mouse in one hand, and with this inscription: Whosoever looks at me, let him fear the gods!" This Σέθως (possibly the Zet whose name occurs in the lists at the close of the twenty-third dynasty, and therefore in the wrong place) is to be regarded as one of the Saitic princes of the twenty-sixth dynasty, who seem to have ruled in Lower Egypt contemporaneously with the Ethiopians (Note: A seal of Pharaoh Sabakon has been found among the ruins of the palace of Kuyunjik. The colossal image of Tarakos is found among the bas-reliefs of Mediet-Habu. He is holding firmly a number of Asiatic prisoners by the hair of their head, and threatening them with a club. There are several other stately monuments in imitation of the Egyptian style in the ruins of Nepata, the northern capital of the Meriotic state, which belong to him (Lepsius, Denkmler, p. 10 of the programme).) (as, in fact, is stated in a passage of the Armenian Eusebius, Aethiopas et Saitas regnasse aiunt eodem tempore), until they succeeded at length in ridding themselves of the hateful supremacy. Herodotus evidently depended in this instance upon the hearsay of Lower Egypt, which transferred the central point of the Assyrian history to their own native princely house. The question, whether the disarming of the Assyrian army in front of Pelusium merely rested upon a legendary interpretation of the mouse in Sethon's hand, (Note: This Sethos monument has not yet been discovered (Brugsch, Reiseberichte, p. 79). The temple of Phta was on the south side of Memphis; the site is marked by the ruins at Mitrahenni.) which may possibly have been originally intended as a symbol of destruction; or whether it was really founded upon an actual occurrence which was exaggerated in the legend, (Note: The inhabitants of Troas worshipped mice, "because they gnawed the strings of the enemies' bows" (see Wesseling on Il. i. 39).) may be left undecided. But it is a real insult to Isaiah, when Thenius and G. Rawlinson place the scene of Isa 37:36 at Pelusium, and thus give the preference to Herodotus. Has not Isaiah up to this point constantly prophesied that the power of Asshur was to be broken in the holy mountain land of Jehovah (Isa 14:25), that the Lebanon forest of the Assyrian army would break to pieces before Jerusalem (Isa 10:32-34), and that there the Assyrian camp would become the booty of the inhabitants of the city, and that without a conflict? And is not the catastrophe that would befal Assyria described in Isa 18:1-7 as an act of Jehovah, which would determine the Ethiopians to do homage to God who was enthroned upon Zion? We need neither cite Ch2 32:21 nor Psa 76:1-12 (lxx ὠδὴ πρὸς τὸν Ἀσσύριον), according to which the weapons of Asshur break to pieces upon Jerusalem; Isaiah's prophecies are quite sufficient to prove, that to force this Pelusiac disaster (Note: G. Rawlinson, Monarchies, ii. 445.) into Isa 37:36 is a most thoughtless concession to Herodotus. The final catastrophe occurred before Jerusalem, and the account in Herodotus gives us no certain information even as to the issue of the Egyptian campaign, which took place in the intervening year. Such a gap as the one which occurs before Isa 37:36 is not without analogy in the historical writings of the Bible; see, for example, Num 20:1, where an abrupt leap is made over the thirty-seven years of the wanderings in the desert. The abruptness is not affected by the addition of the clause in the book of Kings, "It came to pass that night." For, in the face of the "sign" mentioned in Isa 37:30, this cannot mean "in that very night" (viz., the night following the answer given by Isaiah); but (unless it is a careless interpolation) it must refer to Isa 37:33, Isa 37:34, and mean illa nocte, viz., the night in which the Assyrian had encamped before Jerusalem. The account before us reads just like that of the slaying of the first-born in Egypt (Exo 12:12; Exo 11:4). The plague of Egypt is marked as a pestilence by the use of the word nâgaph in connection with hikkâh in Exo 12:23, Exo 12:13 (compare Amo 4:10, where it seems to be alluded to under the name דּבר); and in the case before us also we cannot think of anything else than a divine judgment of this kind, which even to the present day defies all attempts at an aetiological solution, and which is described in 2 Sam as effected through the medium of angels, just as it is here. Moreover, the concise brevity of the narrative leaves it quite open to assume, as Hensler and others do, that the ravages of the pestilence in the Assyrian army, which carried off thousands in the night (Psa 91:6), even to the number of 185,000, may have continued for a considerable time. (Note: The pestilence in Mailand in 1629 carried off, according to Tadino, 160,000 men; that in Vienna, in 1679, 122,849; that in Moscow, at the end of the last century, according to Martens, 670,000; but this was during the whole time that the ravages of the pestilence lasted.) The main thing is the fact that the prophecy in Isa 31:8 was actually fulfilled. According to Josephus (Ant. x. 1, 5), when Sennacherib returned from his unsuccessful Egyptian expedition, he found the detachment of his army, which he had left behind in Palestine, in front of Jerusalem, where a pestilential disease sent by God was making great havoc among the soldiers, and that on the very first night of the siege. The three verses, "he broke up, and went away, and returned home," depict the hurried character of the retreat, like "abiit excessit evasit erupit" (Cic. ii. Catil. init.). The form of the sentence in Isa 37:38 places Sennacherib's act of worship and the murderous act of his sons side by side, as though they had occurred simultaneously. The connection would be somewhat different if the reading had been ויּכּהוּ (cf., Ewald, 341, a). Nisroch apparently signifies the eagle-like, or hawk-like (from nisr, nesher), possibly like "Arioch from 'ărı̄. (The lxx transcribe it νασαραχ, A. ασαραχ, א ασαρακ (K. ἐσθραχ, where B. has μεσεραχ), and explorers of the monuments imagined at one time that they had discovered this god as Asarak; (Note: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, xii. 2, pp. 426-7.) but they have more recently retracted this, although there really is a hawk-headed figure among the images of the Assyrian deities or genii. (Note: Rawlinson, Monarchies, ii. 265.) The name has nothing to do with that of the supreme Assyrian deity, Asur, Asshur. A better derivation of Nisroch would be from סרך, שׂרך, שׂרג; and this is confirmed by Oppert, who has discovered among the inscriptions in the harem of Khorsabad a prayer of Sargon to Nisroch, who appears there, like the Hymen of Greece, as the patron of marriage, and therefore as a "uniter." (Note: Expdition Scientifique en Mesopotamie, t. ii. p. 339.) The name 'Adrammelekh (a god in Kg2 17:31) signifies, as we now known, gloriosus ('addı̄r) est rex;" and Sharetser (for which we should expect to find Saretser), dominator tuebitur. The Armenian form of the latter name (in Moses Chroen. i. 23), San-asar (by the side of Adramel, who is also called Arcamozan), probably yields the original sense of "Lunus (the moon-god Sin) tuebitur." Polyhistorus (in Euseb. chron. arm. p. 19), on the authority of Berosus, mentions only the former, Ardumuzan, as the murderer, and gives eighteen years as the length of Sennacherib's reign. The murder did not take place immediately after his return, as Josephus says (Ant. x. 1, 5; cf., Tobit i. 21-25, Vulg.); and the expression used by Isaiah, he "dwelt (settled down) in Nineveh," suggests the idea of a considerable interval. This interval embraced the suppression of the rebellion in Babylon, where Sennacherib made his son Asordan king, and the campaign in Cilicia (both from Polyhistorus), (Note: Vid., Richter, Berosi quae supersunt (1825), p. 62; Mller, Fragmenta Hist. Gr. ii. 504.) and also, according to the monuments, wars both by sea and land with Susiana, which supported the Babylonian thirst for independence. The Asordan of Polyhistorus is Esar-haddon (also written without the makkeph, Esarhaddon), which is generally supposed to be the Assyrian form of אשׁור־ח־ידן, Assur fratrem dedit. It is so difficult to make the chronology tally here, that Oppert, on Isa 36:1, proposes to alter the fourteenth year into the twenty-ninth, and Rawlinson would alter it into the twenty-seventh. (Note: Sargonides, p. 10, and Monarchies, ii. 434.) They both of them assign to king Sargon a reign of seventeen (eighteen) years, and to Sennacherib (in opposition to Polyhistorus) a reign of twenty-three (twenty-four) years; and they both agree in giving 680 as the year of Sennacherib's death. This brings us down below the first decade of Manasseh's reign, and would require a different author from Isaiah for Isa 37:37, Isa 37:38. But the accounts given by Polyhistorus, Abydenus, and the astronomical canon, however we may reconcile them among themselves, do not extend the reign of Sennacherib beyond 693. (Note: See Duncker, Gesch. des Alterthums. i. pp. 708-9.) It is true that even then Isaiah would have been at least about ninety years old. But the tradition which represents him as dying a martyr's death in the reign of Manasseh, does really assign him a most unusual old age. Nevertheless, Isa 37:37, Isa 37:38 may possibly have been added by a later hand. The two parricides fled to the "land of Ararat," i.e., to Central Armenia. The Armenian history describes them as the founders of the tribes of the Sassunians and Arzerunians. From the princely house of the latter, among whom the name of Sennacherib was a very common one, sprang Leo the Armenian, whom Genesios describes as of Assyrio-Armenian blood. If this were the case, there would be no less than ten Byzantine emperors who were descendants of Sennacherib, and consequently it would not be till a very late period that the prophecy of Nahum was fulfilled. (Note: Duncker, on the contrary (p. 709), speaks of the parricides as falling very shortly afterwards by their brother's hand, and overlooks the Armenian tradition (cf., Rawlinson, Monarchies, ii. 465), which transfers the flight of the two, who were to have been sacrificed, as is reported by their own father, to the year of the world 4494, i.e., b.c. 705 (see the historical survey of Prince Hubbof in the Miscellaneous Translations, vol. ii. 1834). The Armenian historian Thomas (at the end of the ninth century) expressly states that he himself had sprung from the Arzerunians, and therefore from Sennacherib; and for this reason his historical work is chiefly devoted to Assyrian affairs (see Aucher on Euseb. chron. i. p. xv.).)

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]

To this culminating prophecy there is now appended an account of the catastrophe itself. "Then (K. And it came to pass that night, that) the angel of Jehovah went forth and smote (vayyakkeh, K. vayyakh) in the camp of Asshur a hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when men rose up in the morning, behold, they were all lifeless corpses. Then Sennacherib king of Asshur decamped, and went forth and returned, and settled down in Nineveh. And it cam to pass, as he was worshipping in the temple of Misroch, his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons (L. chethib omits 'his sons') smote him with the sword; and when they escaped to the land of Ararat, Esarhaddon ascended the throne in his stead." The first pair of histories closes here with a short account of the result of the Assyrian drama, in which Isaiah's prophecies were most gloriously fulfilled: not only the prophecies immediately preceding, but all the prophecies of the Assyrian era since the time of Ahaz, which pointed to the destruction of the Assyrian forces (e.g., Isa 10:33-34), and to the flight and death of the king of Assyrian (Isa 31:9; Isa 30:33). If we look still further forward to the second pair of histories (chapters 38-39), we see from Isa 38:6 that it is only by anticipation that the account of these closing events is finished here; for the third history carries us back to the period before the final catastrophe. We may account in some measure for the haste and brevity of this closing historical fragment, from the prophet's evident wish to finish up the history of the Assyrian complications, and the prophecy bearing upon it. But if we look back, there is a gap between Isa 37:36 and the event narrated here. For, according to Isa 37:30, there was to be an entire year of trouble between the prophecy and the fulfilment, during which the cultivation of the land would be suspended. What took place during that year? There can be no doubt that Sennacherib was engaged with Egypt; for (1.) when he made his second attempt to get Jerusalem into his power, he had received intelligence of the advance of Tirhakah, and therefore had withdrawn the centre of his army from Lachish, and encamped before Libnah (Isa 37:8-9); (2.) according to Josephus (Ant. x. 1, 4), there was a passage of Berosus, which has been lost, in which he stated that Sennacherib "made an expedition against all Asia and Egypt;" (3.) Herodotus relates (ii. 141) that, after Anysis the blind, who lost his throne for fifty years in consequence of an invasion of Egypt by the Ethiopians under Sabakoa, but who recovered it again, Sethon the priest of Hephaestus ascended the throne. The priestly caste was so oppressed by him, that when Sanacharibos, the king of the Arabians and Assyrians, led a great army against Egypt, they refused to perform their priestly functions. but the priest-king went into the temple to pray, and his God promised to help him. He experienced the fulfilment of this prophecy before Pelusium, where the invasion was to take place, and where he awaited the foe with such as continued true to him. "Immediately after the arrival of Sanacharibos, an army of field-mice swarmed throughout the camp of the foe, and devoured their quivers, bows, and shield-straps, so that when morning came on they had to flee without arms, and lost many men in consequence. This is the origin of the stone of Sethon in the temple of Hephaestus (at Memphis), which is standing there still, with a mouse in one hand, and with this inscription: Whosoever looks at me, let him fear the gods!" This Σέθως (possibly the Zet whose name occurs in the lists at the close of the twenty-third dynasty, and therefore in the wrong place) is to be regarded as one of the Saitic princes of the twenty-sixth dynasty, who seem to have ruled in Lower Egypt contemporaneously with the Ethiopians

(Note: A seal of Pharaoh Sabakon has been found among the ruins of the palace of Kuyunjik. The colossal image of Tarakos is found among the bas-reliefs of Mediet-Habu. He is holding firmly a number of Asiatic prisoners by the hair of their head, and threatening them with a club. There are several other stately monuments in imitation of the Egyptian style in the ruins of Nepata, the northern capital of the Meriotic state, which belong to him (Lepsius, Denkmler, p. 10 of the programme).)

(as, in fact, is stated in a passage of the Armenian Eusebius, Aethiopas et Saitas regnasse aiunt eodem tempore), until they succeeded at length in ridding themselves of the hateful supremacy. Herodotus evidently depended in this instance upon the hearsay of Lower Egypt, which transferred the central point of the Assyrian history to their own native princely house. The question, whether the disarming of the Assyrian army in front of Pelusium merely rested upon a legendary interpretation of the mouse in Sethon's hand,

(Note: This Sethos monument has not yet been discovered (Brugsch, Reiseberichte, p. 79). The temple of Phta was on the south side of Memphis; the site is marked by the ruins at Mitrahenni.)

which may possibly have been originally intended as a symbol of destruction; or whether it was really founded upon an actual occurrence which was exaggerated in the legend,

(Note: The inhabitants of Troas worshipped mice, "because they gnawed the strings of the enemies' bows" (see Wesseling on Il. i. 39).)

may be left undecided.

But it is a real insult to Isaiah, when Thenius and G. Rawlinson place the scene of Isa 37:36 at Pelusium, and thus give the preference to Herodotus. Has not Isaiah up to this point constantly prophesied that the power of Asshur was to be broken in the holy mountain land of Jehovah (Isa 14:25), that the Lebanon forest of the Assyrian army would break to pieces before Jerusalem (Isa 10:32-34), and that there the Assyrian camp would become the booty of the inhabitants of the city, and that without a conflict? And is not the catastrophe that would befal Assyria described in Isa 18:1-7 as an act of Jehovah, which would determine the Ethiopians to do homage to God who was enthroned upon Zion? We need neither cite Ch2 32:21 nor Psa 76:1-12 (lxx ὠδὴ πρὸς τὸν Ἀσσύριον), according to which the weapons of Asshur break to pieces upon Jerusalem; Isaiah's prophecies are quite sufficient to prove, that to force this Pelusiac disaster

(Note: G. Rawlinson, Monarchies, ii. 445.)

into Isa 37:36 is a most thoughtless concession to Herodotus. The final catastrophe occurred before Jerusalem, and the account in Herodotus gives us no certain information even as to the issue of the Egyptian campaign, which took place in the intervening year. Such a gap as the one which occurs before Isa 37:36 is not without analogy in the historical writings of the Bible; see, for example, Num 20:1, where an abrupt leap is made over the thirty-seven years of the wanderings in the desert. The abruptness is not affected by the addition of the clause in the book of Kings, "It came to pass that night." For, in the face of the "sign" mentioned in Isa 37:30, this cannot mean "in that very night" (viz., the night following the answer given by Isaiah); but (unless it is a careless interpolation) it must refer to Isa 37:33, Isa 37:34, and mean illa nocte, viz., the night in which the Assyrian had encamped before Jerusalem. The account before us reads just like that of the slaying of the first-born in Egypt (Exo 12:12; Exo 11:4). The plague of Egypt is marked as a pestilence by the use of the word nâgaph in connection with hikkâh in Exo 12:23, Exo 12:13 (compare Amo 4:10, where it seems to be alluded to under the name דּבר); and in the case before us also we cannot think of anything else than a divine judgment of this kind, which even to the present day defies all attempts at an aetiological solution, and which is described in 2 Sam as effected through the medium of angels, just as it is here. Moreover, the concise brevity of the narrative leaves it quite open to assume, as Hensler and others do, that the ravages of the pestilence in the Assyrian army, which carried off thousands in the night (Psa 91:6), even to the number of 185,000, may have continued for a considerable time.

(Note: The pestilence in Mailand in 1629 carried off, according to Tadino, 160,000 men; that in Vienna, in 1679, 122,849; that in Moscow, at the end of the last century, according to Martens, 670,000; but this was during the whole time that the ravages of the pestilence lasted.)

The main thing is the fact that the prophecy in Isa 31:8 was actually fulfilled. According to Josephus (Ant. x. 1, 5), when Sennacherib returned from his unsuccessful Egyptian expedition, he found the detachment of his army, which he had left behind in Palestine, in front of Jerusalem, where a pestilential disease sent by God was making great havoc among the soldiers, and that on the very first night of the siege. The three verses, "he broke up, and went away, and returned home," depict the hurried character of the retreat, like "abiit excessit evasit erupit" (Cic. ii. Catil. init.). The form of the sentence in Isa 37:38 places Sennacherib's act of worship and the murderous act of his sons side by side, as though they had occurred simultaneously. The connection would be somewhat different if the reading had been ויּכּהוּ (cf., Ewald, 341, a).

Nisroch apparently signifies the eagle-like, or hawk-like (from nisr, nesher), possibly like "Arioch from 'ărı̄. (The lxx transcribe it νασαραχ, A. ασαραχ, א ασαρακ (K. ἐσθραχ, where B. has μεσεραχ), and explorers of the monuments imagined at one time that they had discovered this god as Asarak;

(Note: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, xii. 2, pp. 426-7.)

but they have more recently retracted this, although there really is a hawk-headed figure among the images of the Assyrian deities or genii.

(Note: Rawlinson, Monarchies, ii. 265.)

The name has nothing to do with that of the supreme Assyrian deity, Asur, Asshur. A better derivation of Nisroch would be from סרך, שׂרך, שׂרג; and this is confirmed by Oppert, who has discovered among the inscriptions in the harem of Khorsabad a prayer of Sargon to Nisroch, who appears there, like the Hymen of Greece, as the patron of marriage, and therefore as a "uniter."

(Note: Expdition Scientifique en Mesopotamie, t. ii. p. 339.)

The name 'Adrammelekh (a god in Kg2 17:31) signifies, as we now known, gloriosus ('addı̄r) est rex;" and Sharetser (for which we should expect to find Saretser), dominator tuebitur. The Armenian form of the latter name (in Moses Chroen. i. 23), San-asar (by the side of Adramel, who is also called Arcamozan), probably yields the original sense of "Lunus (the moon-god Sin) tuebitur." Polyhistorus (in Euseb. chron. arm. p. 19), on the authority of Berosus, mentions only the former, Ardumuzan, as the murderer, and gives eighteen years as the length of Sennacherib's reign. The murder did not take place immediately after his return, as Josephus says (Ant. x. 1, 5; cf., Tobit i. 21-25, Vulg.); and the expression used by Isaiah, he "dwelt (settled down) in Nineveh," suggests the idea of a considerable interval. This interval embraced the suppression of the rebellion in Babylon, where Sennacherib made his son Asordan king, and the campaign in Cilicia (both from Polyhistorus),

(Note: Vid., Richter, Berosi quae supersunt (1825), p. 62; Mller, Fragmenta Hist. Gr. ii. 504.)

and also, according to the monuments, wars both by sea and land with Susiana, which supported the Babylonian thirst for independence. The Asordan of Polyhistorus is Esar-haddon (also written without the makkeph, Esarhaddon), which is generally supposed to be the Assyrian form of אשׁור־ח־ידן, Assur fratrem dedit. It is so difficult to make the chronology tally here, that Oppert, on Isa 36:1, proposes to alter the fourteenth year into the twenty-ninth, and Rawlinson would alter it into the twenty-seventh.

(Note: Sargonides, p. 10, and Monarchies, ii. 434.)

They both of them assign to king Sargon a reign of seventeen (eighteen) years, and to Sennacherib (in opposition to Polyhistorus) a reign of twenty-three (twenty-four) years; and they both agree in giving 680 as the year of Sennacherib's death. This brings us down below the first decade of Manasseh's reign, and would require a different author from Isaiah for Isa 37:37, Isa 37:38. But the accounts given by Polyhistorus, Abydenus, and the astronomical canon, however we may reconcile them among themselves, do not extend the reign of Sennacherib beyond 693.

(Note: See Duncker, Gesch. des Alterthums. i. pp. 708-9.)

It is true that even then Isaiah would have been at least about ninety years old. But the tradition which represents him as dying a martyr's death in the reign of Manasseh, does really assign him a most unusual old age. Nevertheless, Isa 37:37, Isa 37:38 may possibly have been added by a later hand. The two parricides fled to the "land of Ararat," i.e., to Central Armenia. The Armenian history describes them as the founders of the tribes of the Sassunians and Arzerunians. From the princely house of the latter, among whom the name of Sennacherib was a very common one, sprang Leo the Armenian, whom Genesios describes as of Assyrio-Armenian blood. If this were the case, there would be no less than ten Byzantine emperors who were descendants of Sennacherib, and consequently it would not be till a very late period that the prophecy of Nahum was fulfilled.

(Note: Duncker, on the contrary (p. 709), speaks of the parricides as falling very shortly afterwards by their brother's hand, and overlooks the Armenian tradition (cf., Rawlinson, Monarchies, ii. 465), which transfers the flight of the two, who were to have been sacrificed, as is reported by their own father, to the year of the world 4494, i.e., b.c. 705 (see the historical survey of Prince Hubbof in the Miscellaneous Translations, vol. ii. 1834). The Armenian historian Thomas (at the end of the ninth century) expressly states that he himself had sprung from the Arzerunians, and therefore from Sennacherib; and for this reason his historical work is chiefly devoted to Assyrian affairs (see Aucher on Euseb. chron. i. p. xv.).)

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
Then the angel - Before "the angel, "the other copy, Kg2 19:35, adds "it came to pass the same night, that " - The Prophet Hosea, Hos 1:7, has given a plain prediction of the miraculous deliverance of the kingdom of Judah: - "And to the house of Judah I will be tenderly merciful: And I will save them by Jehovah their God. And I will not save them by the bow; Nor by sword, nor by battle; By horses, nor by horsemen." - L.

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³⁵ And it came to pass that night [03915], that the angel [04397] of the LORD [03068] went out [03318], and smote [05221] in the camp [04264] of the Assyrians [0804] an hundred [03967] fourscore [08084] and five [02568] thousand [0505]: and when they arose early [07925] in the morning [01242], behold, they were all dead [04191] corpses [06297].

³³ Therefore thus saith [0559] the LORD [03068] concerning the king [04428] of Assyria [0804], He shall not come [0935] into this city [05892], nor shoot [03384] an arrow [02671] there, nor come before [06923] it with shields [04043], nor cast [08210] a bank [05550] against it.

²¹ And the LORD [03068] sent [07971] an angel [04397], which cut off [03582] all the mighty men [01368] of valour [02428], and the leaders [05057] and captains [08269] in the camp [04264] of the king [04428] of Assyria [0804]. So he returned [07725] with shame [01322] of face [06440] to his own land [0776]. And when he was come [0935] into the house [01004] of his god [0430], they that came forth [03329] of his own bowels [04578] slew [05307] him there with the sword [02719].

²² And the LORD [03068] said [0559] unto Moses [04872], Stretch forth [05186] thine hand [03027] toward heaven [08064], that there may be hail [01259] in all the land [0776] of Egypt [04714], upon man [0120], and upon beast [0929], and upon every herb [06212] of the field [07704], throughout the land [0776] of Egypt [04714].
²³ And Moses [04872] stretched forth [05186] his rod [04294] toward heaven [08064]: and the LORD [03068] sent [05414] thunder [06963] and hail [01259], and the fire [0784] ran along [01980] upon the ground [0776]; and the LORD [03068] rained [04305] hail [01259] upon the land [0776] of Egypt [04714].
²⁴ So there was hail [01259], and fire [0784] [03947] mingled [08432] with the hail [01259], very [03966] grievous [03515], such as there was none [03808] like it in all the land [0776] of Egypt [04714] since it became a nation [01471].
²⁵ And the hail [01259] smote [05221] throughout all the land [0776] of Egypt [04714] all that was in the field [07704], both man [0120] and beast [0929]; and the hail [01259] smote [05221] every herb [06212] of the field [07704], and brake [07665] every tree [06086] of the field [07704].

³⁰ And the LORD [03068] shall cause his glorious [01935] voice [06963] to be heard [08085], and shall shew [07200] the lighting down [05183] of his arm [02220], with the indignation [02197] of his anger [0639], and with the flame [03851] of a devouring [0398] fire [0784], with scattering [05311], and tempest [02230], and hailstones [068] [01259].

⁶ Thou shalt be visited [06485] of the LORD [03068] of hosts [06635] with thunder [07482], and with earthquake [07494], and great [01419] noise [06963], with storm [05492] and tempest [05591], and the flame [03851] of devouring [0398] fire [0784].

⁴ And your spoil [07998] shall be gathered [0622] like the gathering [0625] of the caterpiller [02625]: as the running to and fro [04944] of locusts [01357] shall he run [08264] upon them.

¹ Woe [01945] to thee that spoilest [07703], and thou wast not spoiled [07703]; and dealest treacherously [0898], and they dealt not treacherously [0898] with thee! when thou shalt cease [08552] to spoil [07703], thou shalt be spoiled [07703]; and when thou shalt make an end [05239] to deal treacherously [0898], they shall deal treacherously [0898] with thee.

²⁴ And the inhabitant [07934] shall not say [0559], I am sick [02470]: the people [05971] that dwell [03427] therein shall be forgiven [05375] their iniquity [05771].

⁴ And your spoil [07998] shall be gathered [0622] like the gathering [0625] of the caterpiller [02625]: as the running to and fro [04944] of locusts [01357] shall he run [08264] upon them.

³⁷ So Sennacherib [05576] king [04428] of Assyria [0804] departed [05265], and went [03212] and returned [07725], and dwelt [03427] at Nineveh [05210].

⁴ Who maketh [06213] his angels [04397] spirits [07307]; his ministers [08334] a flaming [03857] fire [0784]:

⁷ For the priest's [03548] lips [08193] should keep [08104] knowledge [01847], and they should seek [01245] the law [08451] at his mouth [06310]: for he is the messenger [04397] of the LORD [03068] of hosts [06635].

⁵ Better [02896] is it that thou shouldest not vow [05087], than that thou shouldest vow [05087] and not pay [07999].

¹ Behold, I will send [07971] my messenger [04397], and he shall prepare [06437] the way [01870] before [06440] me: and the Lord [0113], whom ye seek [01245], shall suddenly [06597] come [0935] to his temple [01964], even the messenger [04397] of the covenant [01285], whom ye delight [02655] in: behold, he shall come [0935], saith [0559] the LORD [03068] of hosts [06635].

¹³ Then spake [0559] Haggai [02292] the LORD'S [03068] messenger [04397] in the LORD'S [03068] message [04400] unto the people [05971], saying [0559], I am with you, saith [05002] the LORD [03068].

¹⁶ For the king [04428] will hear [08085], to deliver [05337] his handmaid [0519] out of the hand [03709] of the man [0376] that would destroy [08045] me and my son [01121] together [03162] out of the inheritance [05159] of God [0430].

²⁰ Behold, I send [07971] an Angel [04397] before [06440] thee, to keep [08104] thee in the way [01870], and to bring [0935] thee into the place [04725] which I have prepared [03559].

²⁰ And Saul [07586] sent [07971] messengers [04397] to take [03947] David [01732]: and when they saw [07200] the company [03862] of the prophets [05030] prophesying [05012], and Samuel [08050] standing [05975] as appointed [05324] over them, the Spirit [07307] of God [0430] was upon the messengers [04397] of Saul [07586], and they also prophesied [05012].

¹⁴ And when Saul [07586] sent [07971] messengers [04397] to take [03947] David [01732], she said [0559], He is sick [02470].

¹¹ Saul [07586] also sent [07971] messengers [04397] unto David's [01732] house [01004], to watch [08104] him, and to slay [04191] him in the morning [01242]: and Michal [04324] David's [01732] wife [0802] told [05046] him, saying [0559], If thou save [04422] not thy life [05315] to night [03915], to morrow [04279] thou shalt be slain [04191].

¹⁹ Wherefore Saul [07586] sent [07971] messengers [04397] unto Jesse [03448], and said [0559], Send [07971] me David [01732] thy son [01121], which is with the sheep [06629].

¹⁴ And there came [0935] a messenger [04397] unto Job [0347], and said [0559], The oxen [01241] were plowing [02790], and the asses [0860] feeding [07462] beside [03027] them:

⁴ Being made [1096] so much [5118] better than [2909] the angels [32], as [3745] he hath by inheritance obtained [2816] a more excellent [1313] name [3686] than [3844] they [846].

³⁸ And it came to pass, as he was worshipping [07812] in the house [01004] of Nisroch [05268] his god [0430], that Adrammelech [0152] and Sharezer [08272] his sons [01121] smote [05221] him with the sword [02719]; and they escaped [04422] into the land [0776] of Armenia [0780]: and Esarhaddon [0634] his son [01121] reigned [04427] in his stead.

³⁷ So Sennacherib [05576] king [04428] of Assyria [0804] departed [05265], and went [03212] and returned [07725], and dwelt [03427] at Nineveh [05210].

¹ Now it came to pass in the fourteenth [0702] [06240] year [08141] of king [04428] Hezekiah [02396], that Sennacherib [05576] king [04428] of Assyria [0804] came up [05927] against all the defenced [01219] cities [05892] of Judah [03063], and took [08610] them.

³¹ And the Avites [05757] made [06213] Nibhaz [05026] and Tartak [08662], and the Sepharvites [05616] burnt [08313] their children [01121] in fire [0784] to Adrammelech [0152] and Anammelech [06048], the gods [0430] of Sepharvaim [05617].

⁸ Then shall the Assyrian [0804] fall [05307] with the sword [02719], not of a mighty man [0376]; and the sword [02719], not of a mean man [0120], shall devour [0398] him: but he shall flee [05127] from [06440] the sword [02719], and his young men [0970] shall be discomfited [04522].

⁶ Nor for the pestilence [01698] that walketh [01980] in darkness [0652]; nor for the destruction [06986] that wasteth [07736] at noonday [06672].

¹⁰ I have sent [07971] among you the pestilence [01698] after the manner [01870] of Egypt [04714]: your young men [0970] have I slain [02026] with the sword [02719], and have taken away [07628] your horses [05483]; and I have made the stink [0889] of your camps [04264] to come up [05927] unto your nostrils [0639]: yet have ye not returned [07725] unto me, saith [05002] the LORD [03068].

¹³ And the blood [01818] shall be to you for a token [0226] upon the houses [01004] where ye are: and when I see [07200] the blood [01818], I will pass [06452] over you, and the plague [05063] shall not be upon you to destroy [04889] you, when I smite [05221] the land [0776] of Egypt [04714].

²³ For the LORD [03068] will pass through [05674] to smite [05062] the Egyptians [04714]; and when he seeth [07200] the blood [01818] upon the lintel [04947], and on the two [08147] side posts [04201], the LORD [03068] will pass over [06452] the door [06607], and will not suffer [05414] the destroyer [07843] to come [0935] in unto your houses [01004] to smite [05062] you.

⁴ And Moses [04872] said [0559], Thus saith [0559] the LORD [03068], About midnight [03915] [02676] will I go out [03318] into the midst [08432] of Egypt [04714]:

¹² For I will pass [05674] through the land [0776] of Egypt [04714] this night [03915], and will smite [05221] all the firstborn [01060] in the land [0776] of Egypt [04714], both man [0120] and beast [0929]; and against all the gods [0430] of Egypt [04714] I will execute [06213] judgment [08201]: I am the LORD [03068].

³⁴ By the way [01870] that he came [0935], by the same shall he return [07725], and shall not come [0935] into this city [05892], saith [05002] the LORD [03068].

³⁰ And this shall be a sign [0226] unto thee, Ye shall eat [0398] this year [08141] such as groweth [05599] of itself; and the second [08145] year [08141] that which springeth [07823] of the same: and in the third [07992] year [08141] sow [02232] ye, and reap [07114], and plant [05193] vineyards [03754], and eat [0398] the fruit [06529] thereof.

¹ Then came [0935] the children [01121] of Israel [03478], even the whole congregation [05712], into the desert [04057] of Zin [06790] in the first [07223] month [02320]: and the people [05971] abode [03427] in Kadesh [06946]; and Miriam [04813] died [04191] there, and was buried [06912] there.

³⁶ Then the angel [04397] of the LORD [03068] went forth [03318], and smote [05221] in the camp [04264] of the Assyrians [0804] a hundred [03967] and fourscore [08084] and five [02568] thousand [0505]: and when they arose early [07925] in the morning [01242], behold, they were all dead [04191] corpses [06297].

¹ To the chief Musician [05329] on Neginoth [05058], A Psalm [04210] or Song [07892] of Asaph [0623]. In Judah [03063] is God [0430] known [03045]: his name [08034] is great [01419] in Israel [03478].
² In Salem [08004] also is his tabernacle [05520], and his dwelling place [04585] in Zion [06726].
³ There brake [07665] he the arrows [07565] of the bow [07198], the shield [04043], and the sword [02719], and the battle [04421]. Selah [05542].
⁴ Thou art more glorious [0215] and excellent [0117] than the mountains [02042] of prey [02964].
⁵ The stouthearted [047] [03820] are spoiled [07997], they have slept [05123] their sleep [08142]: and none of the men [0582] of might [02428] have found [04672] their hands [03027].
⁶ At thy rebuke [01606], O God [0430] of Jacob [03290], both the chariot [07393] and horse [05483] are cast into a dead sleep [07290].
⁷ Thou, even thou, art to be feared [03372]: and who may stand [05975] in thy sight [06440] when [0227] once thou art angry [0639]?
⁸ Thou didst cause judgment [01779] to be heard [08085] from heaven [08064]; the earth [0776] feared [03372], and was still [08252],
⁹ When God [0430] arose [06965] to judgment [04941], to save [03467] all the meek [06035] of the earth [0776]. Selah [05542].
¹⁰ Surely the wrath [02534] of man [0120] shall praise [03034] thee: the remainder [07611] of wrath [02534] shalt thou restrain [02296].
¹¹ Vow [05087], and pay [07999] unto the LORD [03068] your God [0430]: let all that be round about [05439] him bring [02986] presents [07862] unto him that ought to be feared [04172].
¹² He shall cut off [01219] the spirit [07307] of princes [05057]: he is terrible [03372] to the kings [04428] of the earth [0776].

¹ Woe [01945] to the land [0776] shadowing [06767] with wings [03671], which is beyond [05676] the rivers [05104] of Ethiopia [03568]:
² That sendeth [07971] ambassadors [06735] by the sea [03220], even in vessels [03627] of bulrushes [01573] upon [06440] the waters [04325], saying, Go [03212], ye swift [07031] messengers [04397], to a nation [01471] scattered [04900] and peeled [04178], to a people [05971] terrible [03372] from their beginning hitherto [01973]; a nation [01471] meted out [06978] and trodden down [04001], whose land [0776] the rivers [05104] have spoiled [0958] !
³ All ye inhabitants [03427] of the world [08398], and dwellers [07931] on the earth [0776], see [07200] ye, when he lifteth up [05375] an ensign [05251] on the mountains [02022]; and when he bloweth [08628] a trumpet [07782], hear [08085] ye.
⁴ For so [03541] the LORD [03068] said [0559] unto me, I will take my rest [08252], and I will consider [05027] in my dwelling place [04349] like a clear [06703] heat [02527] upon herbs [0216], and like a cloud [05645] of dew [02919] in the heat [02527] of harvest [07105].
⁵ For afore [06440] the harvest [07105], when the bud [06525] is perfect [08552], and the sour grape [01155] is ripening [01580] in the flower [05328], he shall both cut off [03772] the sprigs [02150] with pruning hooks [04211], and take away [05493] and cut down [08456] the branches [05189].
⁶ They shall be left [05800] together [03162] unto the fowls [05861] of the mountains [02022], and to the beasts [0929] of the earth [0776]: and the fowls [05861] shall summer [06972] upon them, and all the beasts [0929] of the earth [0776] shall winter [02778] upon them.
⁷ In that time [06256] shall the present [07862] be brought [02986] unto the LORD [03068] of hosts [06635] of a people [05971] scattered [04900] and peeled [04178], and from a people [05971] terrible [03372] from their beginning hitherto [01973]; a nation [01471] meted out [06978] and trodden under foot [04001], whose land [0776] the rivers [05104] have spoiled [0958], to the place [04725] of the name [08034] of the LORD [03068] of hosts [06635], the mount [02022] Zion [06726].

³² As yet shall he remain [05975] at Nob [05011] that day [03117]: he shall shake [05130] his hand [03027] against the mount [02022] of the daughter [01323] [01004] of Zion [06726], the hill [01389] of Jerusalem [03389].
³³ Behold, the Lord [0113], the LORD [03068] of hosts [06635], shall lop [05586] the bough [06288] with terror [04637]: and the high ones [07311] of stature [06967] shall be hewn down [01438], and the haughty [01364] shall be humbled [08213].
³⁴ And he shall cut down [05362] the thickets [05442] of the forest [03293] with iron [01270], and Lebanon [03844] shall fall [05307] by a mighty one [0117].

²⁵ That I will break [07665] the Assyrian [0804] in my land [0776], and upon my mountains [02022] tread him under foot [0947]: then shall his yoke [05923] depart [05493] from off them, and his burden [05448] depart [05493] from off their shoulders [07926].

⁸ So Rabshakeh [07262] returned [07725], and found [04672] the king [04428] of Assyria [0804] warring [03898] against Libnah [03841]: for he had heard [08085] that he was departed [05265] from Lachish [03923].
⁹ And he heard [08085] say [0559] concerning Tirhakah [08640] king [04428] of Ethiopia [03568], He is come forth [03318] to make war [03898] with thee. And when he heard [08085] it, he sent [07971] messengers [04397] to Hezekiah [02396], saying [0559],

⁶ And I will deliver [05337] thee and this city [05892] out of the hand [03709] of the king [04428] of Assyria [0804]: and I will defend [01598] this city [05892].

³³ For Tophet [08613] is ordained [06186] of old [0865]; yea, for the king [04428] it is prepared [03559]; he hath made it deep [06009] and large [07337]: the pile [04071] thereof is fire [0784] and much [07235] wood [06086]; the breath [05397] of the LORD [03068], like a stream [05158] of brimstone [01614], doth kindle [01197] it.

⁹ And he shall pass over [05674] to his strong hold [05553] for fear [04032], and his princes [08269] shall be afraid [02865] of the ensign [05251], saith [05002] the LORD [03068], whose fire [0217] is in Zion [06726], and his furnace [08574] in Jerusalem [03389].

³³ Behold, the Lord [0113], the LORD [03068] of hosts [06635], shall lop [05586] the bough [06288] with terror [04637]: and the high ones [07311] of stature [06967] shall be hewn down [01438], and the haughty [01364] shall be humbled [08213].
³⁴ And he shall cut down [05362] the thickets [05442] of the forest [03293] with iron [01270], and Lebanon [03844] shall fall [05307] by a mighty one [0117].

⁷ But I will have mercy [07355] upon the house [01004] of Judah [03063], and will save [03467] them by the LORD [03068] their God [0430], and will not save [03467] them by bow [07198], nor by sword [02719], nor by battle [04421], by horses [05483], nor by horsemen [06571].