Text -- 2 Kings 19:26-37 (NET)

19:26 Their residents are powerless, they are terrified and ashamed. They are as short-lived as plants in the field, or green vegetation. They are as short-lived as grass on the rooftops when it is scorched by the east wind. 19:27 I know where you live, and everything you do. 19:28 Because you rage against me, and the uproar you create has reached my ears; I will put my hook in your nose, and my bridle between your lips, and I will lead you back the way you came.” 19:29 This will be your confirmation that I have spoken the truth: This year you will eat what grows wild, and next year what grows on its own from that. But in the third year you will plant seed and harvest crops; you will plant vines and consume their produce. 19:30 Those who remain in Judah will take root in the ground and bear fruit. 19:31 For a remnant will leave Jerusalem; survivors will come out of Mount Zion. The intense devotion of the sovereign Lord to his people will accomplish this. 19:32 So this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria: “He will not enter this city, nor will he shoot an arrow here. He will not attack it with his shield-carrying warriors, nor will he build siege works against it. 19:33 He will go back the way he came. He will not enter this city,” says the Lord. 19:34 I will shield this city and rescue it for the sake of my reputation and because of my promise to David my servant.’” 19:35 That very night the Lord’s messenger went out and killed 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp. When they got up early the next morning, there were all the corpses. 19:36 So King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and went on his way. He went home and stayed in Nineveh. 19:37 One day, as he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword. They escaped to the land of Ararat; his son Esarhaddon replaced him as king.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: 2Ki 19:26

¹ tn Heb “short of hand.”

² tn Heb “they are plants in the field and green vegetation.” The metaphor emphasizes how short-lived these seemingly powerful cities really were. See Ps 90:5-6; Isa 40:6-8, 24.

³ tn Heb “[they are] grass on the rooftops.” See the preceding note.

⁴ tc The Hebrew text has “scorched before the standing grain” (perhaps meaning “before it reaches maturity”), but it is preferable to emend קָמָה (qamah), “standing grain,” to קָדִים (qadim), “east wind” (with the support of 1Q Isa^a in Isa 37:27).

NET Notes: 2Ki 19:27

¹ tc Heb “your going out and your coming in.” The MT also has here, “and how you have raged against me.” However, this line is probably dittographic (note the beginning of the next line).

NET Notes: 2Ki 19:28

¹ tc Heb “and your complacency comes up into my ears.” The parallelism is improved if שַׁאֲנַנְךְ (sha’anankh), “your complacency,” is emended to שַׁאֲוַנְךְ (sha’avankh), “your uproar.” See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 237-38.

² sn The word picture has a parallel in Assyrian sculpture. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 238.

NET Notes: 2Ki 19:29

¹ tn 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).

² tn Heb “and this is your sign.” In this case the אוֹת (’ot), “sign,” is a future confirmation of God’s intervention designated before the actual intervention takes place. For similar “signs” see Exod 3:12 and Isa 7:14-25.

³ sn This refers to crops that grew up on their own (that is, without cultivation) from the seed planted in past years.

⁴ tn Heb “and in the second year.”

⁵ tn The four plural imperatival verb forms in v. 29b are used rhetorically. The Lord commands the people to plant, harvest, etc. to emphasize the certainty of restored peace and prosperity. See IBHS 572 §34.4.c.

NET Notes: 2Ki 19:30

¹ tn Heb “The remnant of the house of Judah that is left will add roots below and produce fruit above.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 19:31

¹ tn Traditionally “the Lord of hosts.”

² tn Heb “the zeal of the Lord.” In this context the Lord’s “zeal” refers to his intense devotion to and love for his people which prompts him to protect and restore them. The Qere, along with many medieval Hebrew mss and the ancient versions, has “the zeal of the LORD of hosts” rather than “the zeal of the LORD” (Kethib). The translation follows the Qere here.

NET Notes: 2Ki 19:32

¹ tn Heb “there.”

² tn Heb “[with] a shield.” By metonymy the “shield” stands for the soldier who carries it.

NET Notes: 2Ki 19:34

¹ tn Heb “for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 19:35

¹ tn This refers to the Israelites and/or the rest of the Assyrian army.

² tn Heb “look, all of them were dead bodies.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 19:36

¹ tn Heb “and Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went and returned and lived in Nineveh.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 19:37

¹ sn The assassination probably took place in 681 b.c.

² sn No such Mesopotamian god is presently known. Perhaps the name is a corruption of Nusku.

³ tc Although “his sons” is absent in the Kethib, it is supported by the Qere, along with many medieval Hebrew mss and the ancient versions. Cf. Isa 37:38.

⁴ sn Extra-biblical sources also mention the assassination of Sennacherib, though they refer to only one assassin. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 239-40.