Isaiah 37:17

37:17 Pay attention, Lord, and hear! Open your eyes, Lord, and observe! Listen to this entire message Sennacherib sent and how he taunts the living God! ¹ 

Isaiah 37:23

37:23 Whom have you taunted and hurled insults at?

At whom have you shouted

and looked so arrogantly? ² 

At the Holy One of Israel! ³ 

Isaiah 37:29

37:29 Because you rage against me

and the uproar you create has reached my ears, ⁴ 

I will put my hook in your nose, ⁵ 

and my bridle between your lips,

and I will lead you back

the way you came.”

Isaiah 37:36

37:36 The Lord’s messenger ⁶  went out and killed 185,000 troops ⁷  in the Assyrian camp. When they ⁸  got up early the next morning, there were all the corpses! ⁹ 

Isaiah 37:38

37:38 One day, ¹⁰  as he was worshiping ¹¹  in the temple of his god Nisroch, ¹²  his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword. ¹³  They ran away to the land of Ararat; his son Esarhaddon replaced him as king.

[37:17]  ¹ tn Heb “Hear all the words of Sennacherib which he sent to taunt the living God.”

[37:23]  ² tn Heb “and lifted your eyes on high?” Cf. NIV “lifted your eyes in pride”; NRSV “haughtily lifted your eyes.”

[37:23]  ³ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[37:29]  ⁴ tc Heb “and your complacency comes up into my ears.” The parallelism is improved if שַׁאֲנַנְךָ (sha’anankha, “your complacency”) is emended to שְׁאוֹנְךָ (shÿ’onÿkha, “your uproar”). See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 237-38. However, the LXX seems to support the MT and Sennacherib’s cavalier dismissal of Yahweh depicts an arrogant complacency (J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 1:658, n. 10).

[37:29]  ⁵ sn The word-picture has a parallel in Assyrian sculpture. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 238.

[37:36]  ⁶ tn Traditionally, “the angel of the Lord” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[37:36]  ⁷ tn The word “troops” is supplied in the translation for smoothness and clarity.

[37:36]  ⁸ tn This refers to the Israelites and/or the rest of the Assyrian army.

[37:36]  ⁹ tn Heb “look, all of them were dead bodies”; NLT “they found corpses everywhere.”

[37:38]  ¹⁰ sn The assassination of King Sennacherib probably took place in 681 b.c.

[37:38]  ¹¹ tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[37:38]  ¹² sn No such Mesopotamian god is presently known. Perhaps the name Nisroch is a corruption of Nusku.

[37:38]  ¹³ 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.