Isaiah 37:21-29

37:21 Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘Because you prayed to me concerning King Sennacherib of Assyria, ¹  37:22 this is what the Lord says about him: ² 

“The virgin daughter Zion ³ 

despises you – she makes fun of you;

daughter Jerusalem

shakes her head after you. ⁴ 

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

At whom have you shouted

and looked so arrogantly? ⁵ 

At the Holy One of Israel! ⁶ 

37:24 Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master, ⁷ 

‘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, ⁸ 

its thickest woods.

37:25 I dug wells

and drank water. ⁹ 

With the soles of my feet I dried up

all the rivers of Egypt.’

37:26 ¹⁰ Certainly you must have heard! ¹¹ 

Long ago I worked it out,

in ancient times I planned ¹²  it,

and now I am bringing it to pass.

The plan is this:

Fortified cities will crash

into heaps of ruins. ¹³ 

37:27 Their residents are powerless; ¹⁴ 

they are terrified and ashamed.

They are as short-lived as plants in the field

or green vegetation. ¹⁵ 

They are as short-lived as grass on the rooftops ¹⁶ 

when it is scorched by the east wind. ¹⁷ 

37:28 I know where you live

and everything you do

and how you rage against me. ¹⁸ 

37:29 Because you rage against me

and the uproar you create has reached my ears, ¹⁹ 

I will put my hook in your nose, ²⁰ 

and my bridle between your lips,

and I will lead you back

the way you came.”

[37:21]  ¹ tn The parallel text in 2 Kgs 19:20 reads, “That which you prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.” The verb “I have heard” does not appear in Isa 37:21, where אֲשֶׁר (’asher) probably has a causal sense: “because.”

[37:22]  ² tn Heb “this is the word which the Lord has spoken about him.”

[37:22]  ³ sn Zion (Jerusalem) is pictured here as a young, vulnerable daughter whose purity is being threatened by the would-be Assyrian rapist. The personification hints at the reality which the young girls of the city would face if the Assyrians conquer it.

[37:22]  ⁴ sn Shaking the head was a mocking gesture of derision.

[37:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “and lifted your eyes on high?” Cf. NIV “lifted your eyes in pride”; NRSV “haughtily lifted your eyes.”

[37:23]  ⁶ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[37:24]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[37:24]  ⁸ tn Heb “the height of its extremity”; ASV “its farthest height.”

[37:25]  ⁹ tc The Hebrew text has simply, “I dug and drank water.” But the parallel text in 2 Kgs 19:24 has “foreign waters.” זָרִים (zarim, “foreign”) may have accidentally dropped out of the Isaianic text by homoioteleuton (cf. NCV, NIV, NLT). Note that the preceding word, מַיִם (mayim, “water) also ends in mem (ם). The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has “foreign waters” for this line. However, in several other passages the 1QIsa^a scroll harmonizes with 2 Kgs 19 against the MT (Isa 36:5; 37:9, 20). Since the addition of “foreign” to this text in Isaiah by a later scribe would be more likely than its deletion, the MT reading should be accepted.

[37:26]  ¹⁰ tn Having quoted the Assyrian king’s arrogant words in vv. 23-24, the Lord now speaks to the king.

[37:26]  ¹¹ 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.

[37:26]  ¹² tn Heb “formed” (so KJV, ASV).

[37:26]  ¹³ tn Heb “and it is to cause to crash into heaps of ruins fortified cities.” The subject of the third feminine singular verb תְהִי (tÿhi) is the implied plan, referred to in the preceding lines with third feminine singular pronominal suffixes.

[37:27]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “short of hand”; KJV, ASV “of small power”; NASB “short of strength.”

[37:27]  ¹⁵ 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.

[37:27]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “[they are] grass on the rooftops.” See the preceding note.

[37:27]  ¹⁷ 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; cf. J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:657, n. 8.

[37:28]  ¹⁸ tc Heb “your going out and your coming in and how you have raged against me.” Several scholars have suggested that this line is probably dittographic (note the beginning of the next line). However, most English translations include the statement in question at the end of v. 28 and the beginning of v. 29. Interestingly, the LXX does not have this clause at the end of v. 28 and the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a does not have it at the beginning of v. 29. In light of this ambiguous manuscript evidence, it appears best to retain the clause in both verses.

[37:29]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ sn The word-picture has a parallel in Assyrian sculpture. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 238.