19:1 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and went to the Lord’s temple.
After Assyria threatened Judah, King Hezekiah tore his garment in mourning and went to the Lord’s temple to pray about the situation.
19:2 He sent Eliakim the palace supervisor, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, clothed in sackcloth, with this message to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz:
King Hezekiah sent his three royal administrators to deliver a message to Isaiah the prophet. Isaiah has been prophesying in Judah for 40 years since the days of King Uzziah, but this was his first mention in Kings.
19:3 “This is what Hezekiah says: ‘This is a day of distress, insults, and humiliation, as when a baby is ready to leave the birth canal, but the mother lacks the strength to push it through.
Judah was compared to a mother who was about to die in child birth, because she did not have the strength to push her baby through her birth canal.
19:4 Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all these things the chief adviser has spoken on behalf of his master, the king of Assyria, who sent him to taunt the living God. When the Lord your God hears, perhaps he will punish him for the things he has said. So pray for this remnant that remains.’ ”
Perhaps Jehovah would hear Judah groaning in her birth pangs. Perhaps Jehovah would hear Assyria as she taunts the living God. Perhaps Jehovah would punish Assyria for her mockings. Perhaps Jehovah would protect the believing remnant which still remained in Jerusalem. The remnant is the Jewish believers of the Old Testament.
19:5 When King Hezekiah’s servants came to Isaiah, 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.
Isaiah gave a message from Jehovah to the servants. King Hezekiah was not to be afraid. The Assyrian servants had insulted Jehovah.
19:7 Look, I will take control of his mind; he will receive a report and return to his own land. I will cut him down with a sword in his own land.” ’
Jehovah is sovereign over all things. He would cause some problems in Assyria which would cause Sennacherib to leave Jerusalem and return home. This prophecy was fulfilled when Sennacherib returned home and was slain by two of his own sons. This event was also found described in an Assyrian inscription.
19:8 When the chief adviser heard the king of Assyria had departed from Lachish, he left and went to Libnah, where the king was campaigning.
After conquering Lachish, Sennacherib moved against this smaller town to the north of Lachish.
19:9 The king heard that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia was marching out to fight him. He again sent messengers to Hezekiah, ordering them:
Tirhakah was a threat from the south, so Sennacherib moved against him. Tirhakah did not become king of Ethiopia until 11 years after this siege. The term of “king” is a prophetic title. The author wrote this incident some time during the Babylon Captivity, so he is looking backwards to the event.
19:10 “Tell King Hezekiah of Judah this: ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust mislead you when he says, “Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.”
Assyria would not be able to defeat Judah.
19:11 Certainly you have heard how the kings of Assyria have annihilated all lands. Do you really think you will be rescued?
Assyria boasted that Israel would not be rescued. Jehovah disagreed.
19:12 Were the nations whom my ancestors destroyed—the nations of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden in Telassar—rescued by their gods?
The Assyrians conquered all of these nations and many more. All of these cities lay between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Mesopotamia.
19:13 Where are the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’ ”
The Assyrians also defeated these Syrian cities.
19:14 Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to the Lord’s temple and spread it out before the Lord.
King Ahaz, the father of King Hezekiah, had refused to even ask for a sign from the Lord. His son, King Hezekiah, went to the temple himself to talk to the Lord about this threatening situation. King Hezekiah did not have to read this letter to the Lord, because he already knew about it. However, God likes believers to remind Him of His promises.
19:15 Hezekiah prayed before the Lord: “Lord God of Israel, who is enthroned on the cherubs! You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the sky and the earth.
According to Ezekiel, there are four cherubim surrounding the throne of God the Father. The mercy seat in the Holy of Holies represents the throne of heaven. There were two golden cherubim standing upon each side of this mercy seat. The blood of the lamb was spilt upon the mercy seat of the Holy Holies between the two cherubim. This represented the blood of Christ poured upon the mercy seat for the sins of the people.
Hezekiah asked the Sovereign God and Creator of the universe to deliver Judah not because of Judah’s worthiness, but because of God’s goodness.
19:16 Pay attention, Lord, and hear! Open your eyes, Lord, and observe! Listen to the message Sennacherib sent and how he taunts the living God!
Hezekiah asked the living God to hear the taunts of this pagan and blasphemous Assyrian king.
19:17 It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands.
Assyrian was a brutal and powerful nation who had defeated every nation in their path.
19:18 They have burned the gods of the nations, for they are not really gods, but only the product of human hands manufactured from wood and stone. That is why the Assyrians could destroy them.
Hezekiah recognized that the gods of other nations were just products of human invention.
19:19 Now, O Lord our God, rescue us from his power, so that all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you, Lord, are the only God.”
Hezekiah asked Jehovah to prove that he was real to the other nations. Most of the surrounding nations were all paying tribute to the powerful Assyrians.
19:20 Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I have heard your prayer concerning King Sennacherib of Assyria.
Isaiah received an immediate response from Jehovah.
19:21 This is what the Lord says about him: “The virgin daughter Zion despises you, she makes fun of you; Daughter Jerusalem shakes her head after you.
Judah was a virgin girl who had never been defeated by enemies. Assyria was a violent and ruthless rapist. Assyria wanted to violently rape Judah, but the Virgin Judah will have the last laugh.
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!
Assyria made a big mistake. Arrogantly, they insulted the Holy God of Israel. This was the same mistake that many atheists and unbelievers make today.
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.
Even Sennacherib’s messengers taunted Jehovah.
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.’
King Sennacherib of Assyria boasted that he had conquered all of these lands on his own.
19:25 Certainly you must have heard! Long ago I worked it out, In ancient times I planned it; and now I am bringing it to pass. The plan is this: Fortified cities will crash into heaps of ruins.
Jehovah corrected Sennacherib’s arrogant thinking. Jehovah planned all of Sennacherib’s conquests before the foundations of the world were even created. Sennacherib had nothing to do with it. He was simply just a tool in which Jehovah chose to execute God’s own plan.
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.
Assyria tortured and destroyed entire populations. The other nations were terrified of the Assyrian torture methods.
19:27 I know where you live, and everything you do.
Jehovah knows the exact location of Sennacherib. He knows everything about Sennacherib, including his thought life.
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.”
Sennacherib took captives back to Assyria with a hook in their nose. The Lord was going to bring Sennacherib back to Assyria in the same manner.
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.
The Lord gave a sign to Judah so that they would know that Isaiah was a true prophet of God. Judah would have enough grain in her fields for two years. They would be able to plant their own grain in the third year.
19:30 Those who remain in Judah will take root in the ground and bear fruit.
Those who stay in Judah will survive and eat the fruit of their grain.
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.
This remnant who plants and eats the fruit will produce human offspring who will cover the land of Israel which the Assyrians had taken. This prophecy will be fulfilled in the Millennial Kingdom.
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.
Jehovah promised Isaiah that King Sennacherib would not be able to attack or siege the city of Jerusalem. If one archer could have shot his arrow into Jerusalem, then this prophecy would have been broken. If Satan had complete control over the Assyrians, then he could have one arrow shot into the city to show the entire angelic world that God was a liar and that God was not omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.
19:33 He will go back the way he came. He will not enter this city,” says the Lord.
God would send Sennacherib back to Assyria. Sennacherib recorded that he “shut up” the city, but he did not conquer it.
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.’ ”
God promised that the Messiah would come from the line of David. Therefore, He would protect Zechariah, who carried the messianic seed. Therefore, the Assyrian king would not be able to enter the city.
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.
The Angel of the Lord was the Lord Jesus Christ. He wiped out 185,000 Assyrians in one night. Secular history recorded the slaughter, but not the supernatural aspect of it.
19:36 So King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and went on his way. He went home and stayed in Nineveh.
Assyria lost most of her army. She was no longer a world power. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria.
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.
Nisroch was the god of the Assyrians. This false god was not able to keep King Sennacherib from being assassinated by his own two sons even in his own temple.