2 Kings 19:6

19:6 Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master this: ‘This is what the Lord says: “Don’t be afraid because of the things you have heard – these insults the king of Assyria’s servants have hurled against me.

2 Kings 19:22-37

19:22 Whom have you taunted and hurled insults at?

At whom have you shouted,

and looked so arrogantly?

At the Holy One of Israel!

19:23 Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master,

‘With my many chariots

I climbed up the high mountains,

the slopes of Lebanon.

I cut down its tall cedars,

and its best evergreens.

I invaded its most remote regions,

its thickest woods.

19:24 I dug wells and drank

water in foreign lands.

With the soles of my feet I dried up

all the rivers of Egypt.’

19:25 Certainly you must have heard! 10 

Long ago I worked it out,

In ancient times I planned 11  it;

and now I am bringing it to pass.

The plan is this:

Fortified cities will crash

into heaps of ruins. 12 

19:26 Their residents are powerless, 13 

they are terrified and ashamed.

They are as short-lived as plants in the field,

or green vegetation. 14 

They are as short-lived as grass on the rooftops 15 

when it is scorched by the east wind. 16 

19:27 I know where you live,

and everything you do. 17 

19:28 Because you rage against me,

and the uproar you create has reached my ears; 18 

I will put my hook in your nose, 19 

and my bridle between your lips,

and I will lead you back the way

you came.”

19:29 20 This will be your confirmation that I have spoken the truth: 21  This year you will eat what grows wild, 22  and next year 23  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. 24  19:30 Those who remain in Judah will take root in the ground and bear fruit. 25 

19:31 For a remnant will leave Jerusalem;

survivors will come out of Mount Zion.

The intense devotion of the sovereign Lord 26  to his people 27  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. 28 

He will not attack it with his shield-carrying warriors, 29 

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.’” 30 

19:35 That very night the Lord’s messenger went out and killed 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp. When they 31  got up early the next morning, there were all the corpses. 32  19:36 So King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and went on his way. He went home and stayed in Nineveh. 33  19:37 One day, 34  as he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, 35  his sons 36  Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword. 37  They escaped to the land of Ararat; his son Esarhaddon replaced him as king.

2 Kings 19:1

19:1 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and went to the Lord’s temple.

2 Kings 13:18

13:18 Then Elisha 38  said, “Take the arrows,” and he did so. 39  He told the king of Israel, “Strike the ground!” He struck the ground three times and stopped.

2 Kings 13:2

13:2 He did evil in the sight of 40  the Lord. He continued in 41  the sinful ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat who had encouraged Israel to sin; he did not repudiate those sins. 42 

2 Kings 1:1

Elijah Confronts the King and His Commanders

1:1 After Ahab died, Moab rebelled against Israel. 43 

Isaiah 10:5-6

The Lord Turns on Arrogant Assyria

10:5 Assyria, the club I use to vent my anger, is as good as dead, 44 

a cudgel with which I angrily punish. 45 

10:6 I sent him 46  against a godless 47  nation,

I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry, 48 

to take plunder and to carry away loot,

to trample them down 49  like dirt in the streets.

Amos 3:6

3:6 If an alarm sounds 50  in a city, do people not fear? 51 

If disaster overtakes a 52  city, is the Lord not responsible? 53 

John 19:10-11

19:10 So Pilate said, 54  “Do you refuse to speak to me? Don’t you know I have the authority 55  to release you, and to crucify you?” 56  19:11 Jesus replied, “You would have no authority 57  over me at all, unless it was given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you 58  is guilty of greater sin.” 59 


tn Heb “by which the servants of the king of Assyria have insulted me.”

tn Heb “have you raised a voice.”

tn Heb “and lifted your eyes on high?”

sn This divine title pictures the Lord as the sovereign king who rules over his covenant people and exercises moral authority over them.

tn The word is אֲדֹנָי (’adonai), “lord,” but some Hebrew mss have יְהוָה (yehvah), “Lord.”

tc The consonantal text (Kethib) has בְּרֶכֶב (bÿrekhev), but this must be dittographic (note the following רִכְבִּי [rikhbi], “my chariots”). The marginal reading (Qere) בְּרֹב (bÿrov), “with many,” is supported by many Hebrew mss and ancient versions, as well as the parallel passage in Isa 37:24.

tn Heb “the lodging place of its extremity.”

tn Heb “I dug and drank foreign waters.”

tn Having quoted the Assyrian king’s arrogant words in vv. 23-24, the Lord now speaks to the king.

10 tn 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.

11 tn Heb “formed.”

12 tn Heb “and it is to cause to crash into heaps of ruins fortified cities.” The subject of the third feminine singular verb תְּהִי (tÿhi) is the implied plan, referred to in the preceding lines with third feminine singular pronominal suffixes.

13 tn Heb “short of hand.”

14 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.

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

16 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 Isaa in Isa 37:27).

17 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).

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

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

20 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).

21 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.

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

23 tn Heb “and in the second year.”

24 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.

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

26 tn Traditionally “the Lord of hosts.”

27 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.

28 tn Heb “there.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

36 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.

37 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.

38 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

39 tn Heb “and he took [them].”

40 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

41 tn Heb “walked after.”

42 tn Heb “he did not turn aside from it.”

43 sn This statement may fit better with the final paragraph of 1 Kgs 22.

44 tn Heb “Woe [to] Assyria, the club of my anger.” On הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) see the note on the first phrase of 1:4.

45 tn Heb “a cudgel is he, in their hand is my anger.” It seems likely that the final mem (ם) on בְיָדָם (bÿyadam) is not a pronominal suffix (“in their hand”), but an enclitic mem. If so, one can translate literally, “a cudgel is he in the hand of my anger.”

46 sn Throughout this section singular forms are used to refer to Assyria; perhaps the king of Assyria is in view (see v. 12).

47 tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “impious”; NCV “separated from God.”

48 tn Heb “and against the people of my anger I ordered him.”

49 tn Heb “to make it [i.e., the people] a trampled place.”

50 tn Heb “If the ram’s horn is blown.”

51 tn Or “tremble” (NASB, NIV, NCV); or “shake.”

52 tn Heb “is in”; NIV, NCV, NLT “comes to.”

53 tn Heb “has the Lord not acted?”

54 tn Grk “said to him.” The words “to him” are not translated because they are unnecessary in contemporary English style.

55 tn Or “the power.”

56 tn Grk “know that I have the authority to release you and the authority to crucify you.” Repetition of “the authority” is unnecessarily redundant English style.

57 tn Or “power.”

58 tn Or “who delivered me over to you.”

59 tn Grk “has the greater sin” (an idiom).