603 B.C.

2 Kings 19)

1 And it came to pass (cp. Isa. 37:1), when king Hezekiah heard [it], that he tore his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord (Yahaveh. You know when things get rough it doesn’t matter where you are. In the book of Psalms it tells us that wherever you are at anytime, you can take refuge in the house of the Lord. That’s the sanctuary. In other words you can seek protection and aid in that high tower if you will. He will deliver you as promised as stated in where we started today, 1 Corinthians 10:13).

2 And he sent Eliakim, which [was] over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz (= salvation of Yahaveh. The first occ. in the historical Books. Hezekiah was one of the 4 kings in whose reign he prophesied [Isa. 1:1]. The chapters in Isaiah which refer to these events are 10:5-12:6; 14:24-27; 17:12-14; 22; 29-33; 36, and 37).
3 And they said to him, “Thus saith Hezekiah, ‘This day [is] a day of trouble (The day of Jacobs trouble might come to mind), and of rebuke, and blasphemy: for the sons are come to the birth, and [there is] not strength to bring forth (This is a life-threatening situation. When a mother is with child and it’s time to delver that child, if she doesn’t have the strength to deliver that child, both will die. Both will perish. What’s that got to do with what we’re talking about? Let me tell you, there’s a birth that all of you are involved in, and I don’t care if you’re a man or a woman. I’m talking about the birth of a new age. Do you think we’ll have the strength to do our part to accomplish the birth of a new age? We’re going to have a lot of help).
4 It may be the Lord your God will hear all (come codices omit) the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to disparage (or taunt or flout) the living God; and will reprove the words which the Lord your God has heard: wherefore lift up [your] prayer for the remnant that are left’ ” (Hezekiah's "Songs of the degrees" witness to this prayer in his distress. See Ps. 120:1; 130:1,2. Most of Judah, 46 fenced cities, walled cities. Over 200,000 people taken captive. Most of Judah is already gone captive to the Assyrian. In our day and age the Elect are the remnant that are left that have not gone into captivity to the Assyrian).
5 So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

6 And Isaiah said to them (In Greek [N.T.] = Esaias), “Thus shall you all say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord, ‘Be not afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled (or vilified) Me.
7 Behold, I will send a blast (Heb. ruach) upon him, and he shall hear a rumor (Fig., Heb. "hear a hearing" = hear a serious report. See Gen. 26:28), and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.’ ’ ” (Historically this would come to pass. If we continued on in this same chapter we’d learn in verse 28, God told the Assyrian, I will put my hook in your nose and my bridal in they lips and lead thee back by the way you came. In verse 35 the angel of the Lord slew 185,000 of the Assyrians. Verse 32 Sennacherib, back in his home city, went into the house of his God and was murdered by his own 2 sons. This particular siege of the Assyrian was not successful. You know we’ve been talking about the future seed of the Assyrian, do you think the Assyrian is going to be successful during that siege or do you think that God will once again send a blast? Oh, maybe you could be part of that blast!)

8 So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish (Sennacherib had laid siege against it [2 Chron. 32:9], but had found it difficult, as Josua had [Josh.10:31,32, "the second day"]; and "left" it untaken [Jer. 34:7]).
9 And when he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia (= exhalted. An Ethiopian by birth; king of Egypt by conquest. Defeated later by Esarhaddon, son of Sennacherib, after 15 days battle. Esarhaddon is shown on a stele, recently discovered, leading Tirhakah with cords), “Behold, he is come out to fight against you:” he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying,
10 “Thus shall you all speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, ‘Let not Your God in whom you confide deceive you, saying, ‘Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.’
11 Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shall you be delivered?
12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed; [as] Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the sons of Eden which [were] in Thelasar?
13 Where [is] the king of Hamath (see 18:34), and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivah?’ ”

14 And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it:

and Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord (Hezekiah's zeal for the house of Yehovah is see in his "songs of the degrees". Cp. Ps. 122:1,9; 134:1,2. This was the one of the most prominent features of Hezekiah's character. It occupied his thoughts and filled his heart. The first act of his reign was to "open the doors of the house of Yahaveh" [2 Chron. 29:3] which Ahaz his father had "shut up" [2 Chron. 28:24]. This was "the first year of his reign, in the first month". See also 20:8. Isa. 37:1,14. Isa. 38:20,22), and spread it before the Lord.

15 And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord (when assaulted by the king of terrors he "turned his face to the wall and prayed" [Isa. 38:2]. But when the king of Babylon came with a present he did not pray, and fell into the snare [Isa. 39:1,2]. Note the Structure of Isaiah ch. 36-39. See also Isa. 38:3, 10-20. 2 Chron. 32:20, and v.2,4 above. Finds more than its echo in Pss. 120:1; 123:1-3; 130:1,2), and said, “O the Lord God of Israel, Which dwell [between] the cherubims (cp. his first prayer in Ps. 123:1), You are Yourself the God, [even] You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; You have made heaven and earth (cp. Gen. 1:1. Hezekiah, in his "songs of the degrees", repeats this phrase as witnessing to the power of God, as Creator, to defeat the enemy. See Pss. 121:1,2; 123:1; 124:8; 134:3. This was to retort the idolatrous railings of Rab-shakeh in 2 Chron. 32:19. See also Isa. 37:16).
16 the Lord, bow down Your ear, and hear: open, Lord, Your eyes, and see: and hear the words of Sennacherib, which has sent him to reproach the living God (always used in contrast with idols).
17 Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands,
18 And have cast their gods into the fire: for they [were] no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them.
19 Now therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech You, save You us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You [are] the Lord God (= I Am That I Am the Creator), [even] You only.”

20-34. Answer of Yahaveh.

d  e  20. Yahaveh. Prayer regarded.
    f  21-28. Defiance of the foe.
   e  29-31. Yahaveh. Sign given.
    f  32-34. Defeat of the foe.

20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘[That] which You have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.’

21 This [is] the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him; ‘The virgin the daughter of Zion has despised you, [and] laughed you to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head after you (i.e. after she has seen your back turned).
22 Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? and against Whom have you exalted [your] voice, and lifted up your eyes on high? [even] against the Holy [One] of Israel.
23 By your messengers you have reproached the Lord, and have said, ‘With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down the tall cedar trees thereof, [and] the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders, [and into] the forest of his Carmel.
24 I have dug and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places.’
25 Have you not heard long ago [how] I have made it (i.e. the earth), [and] of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that you should be to lay waste fenced cities [into] ruinous heaps.
26 Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were [as] the grass of the field, and [as] the green herb, [as] the grass on the housetops, and [as corn] blighted before it be grown up (Note Hezekiah's reference to this in his "Songs of the degrees" [Ps.129:5-7]. See also Isa.37:26,27).
27 But I know your down-sitting, and your outgoing, and your incoming, and your enraging yourself against me (very emphatic. The Hithpael gerund occurs only here and Isa. 37:28,29).
28 Because your enrage yourself against Me and your arrogance is come up into My ears, therefore I will put My hook in your nose, and My bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came.’ (see the reference to this in Hezekiah's "Songs of the degrees" [Ps. 129:4,5]. See also 2 Chron. 32:21)

29 And this [shall be] a sign to you, You all shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springs of the same; and in the third year sow you all, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof (see the reference to this in Hezekiah's "Songs of the degrees" [Pss.126:5,6; 128:2]. See also Isa. 37:30 were this sign is given. The continued perseverance of the sowers under great disappointment gives a picture of peaceful agriculturists at home at work, and not on exiles in a foreign land, or on their way home from Babylon).
30 And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
31 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant (i.e. the country people who had retired into Jerusalem for safety. Cp. v.4, and see Isa.10:20), and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.
32 Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it (i.e. erect an earthwork).
33 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, says the Lord.
34 For I will defend (= spread, or be a shield over) this city, to save it, for My own sake (Man's sins cannot foil God's purpose. He doe not go outside of His own will to explain His actions in grace), and for my servant David's sake.’ ”
35 And it came to pass (cp. 37:36) that night (i.e. the night of the prophecy when the promise was fulfilled. Cp. "that day" [Luke 21:34. 1 Thess. 5:4]), that the Angel of the Lord went out (i.e. the destroying Angel. Cp. 2 Sam. 24:16), and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they (i.e. the king and his people) arose early in the morning, behold, they [were] all dead corpses.
36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed (there is no mention of the capture of Jerusalem in Sennacherb's inscription. This omission is more remarkable than what Sennacherib says. Had he taken Jerusalem, the omission would be unaccountable. Cp. 2 Chron. 32:21 and Ps. 129:4,5), and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh (fig., to greatly emphasize the fact of his defeat).
37 And it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god (= the great eagle. Mentioned in the inscriptions), that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons (a cylinder recently acquired [1910] by, and now in the British Museum, states: "On the twentieth day of the month Tebet [Dec.], Sennacherib, king of Assyria, his son slew him in rebellion". The rebellion [it says] lasted till the twenty-eigth of Sivan [June] of next year., "when Esarhaddon his son sat on the throne of Assyria." The will, or rather deed of gift, of Sennacherib [2 inches by 1, containing 11 lines; in the Kouyoujik Gallery] gives all to Esarhaddon. This probably led to Esarhaddon having afterwards to fight his 2 brothers, Sennacherib's murderers) smote him with the sword (some years later; but mentioned here as the sequel to this history): and they escaped into the land of Armenia (Heb. Ararat). And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

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