Isaiah 37: The Angel of the LORD Went Forth

"And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord… This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth" (37:1–3).

"And Hezekiah received the letter… and spread it before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed unto the Lord, saying, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth… Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord, even thou only" (vv. 14–20).

"The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn… Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed?… even against the Holy One of Israel… therefore will I put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest" (vv. 22–29). "He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it" (v. 33).

"Then the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed… and dwelt at Nineveh. And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword" (vv. 36–38).

A hook in the nose

Assyrian and later reliefs show captives led by ropes fastened to rings through their lips or noses; the stele of Esarhaddon from Sam'al (Zincirli) shows the Assyrian king holding two small captive kings by such cords (reported). Isaiah turns the image back on Sennacherib: God will lead him home like a captive.

The 185,000

No Assyrian source mentions a disaster at Jerusalem; Assyrian annals never record defeats. Herodotus (Histories 2.141), two centuries later, tells from Egyptian priests that field mice gnawed the quivers and shield straps of Sennacherib's army near Pelusium on Egypt's border, so it fled. Some scholars think both stories remember a real calamity, perhaps an epidemic (mice and plague are linked in 1 Samuel 6), but Herodotus places it in Egypt and tells a different story; it cannot be counted as confirmation. Other explanations of the withdrawal: Hezekiah's submission and tribute, troubles elsewhere in the empire ("he shall hear a rumour," 37:7), or the approach of the Kushite army. The number 185,000 is the Bible's alone.

Sennacherib's murder

The Babylonian Chronicle reports that Sennacherib was killed by "his son" in a rebellion in 681 BC; Esarhaddon's own inscriptions describe his brothers' revolt; an Assyrian letter names a son, Urad-Mullissu (Arda-Mulissi), whom many identify with Adrammelech (S. Parpola). Sharezer may be Nabu-shar-usur, but this is uncertain. "Nisroch" is not a known Assyrian god (proposals: Nusku, Ninurta, or a corruption). "Armenia" is Ararat, Urartu. The Bible compresses twenty years between the withdrawal (701) and the murder (681) into a single sequence.

Tirhakah

Taharqa became pharaoh of Kush and Egypt in 690 BC. In 701 he may have led the army as a young prince and been called "king" by narrators who knew his later title; or the narrative merged events; or (W. F. Albright, J. Bright) Sennacherib made a second campaign about 688 BC, of which no Assyrian record exists. Most scholars reject a second campaign; the question remains open.