Isaiah 37:37 - Printer Friendly

ESV: Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh.

NIV: So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.

NASB: So Sennacherib the king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived in Nineveh.

CSB: So King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and left. He returned home and lived in Nineveh.

NLT: Then King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and returned to his own land. He went home to his capital of Nineveh and stayed there.

KJV: So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.

NKJV: So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh.

The Lord's promise to Hezekiah (Isaiah 37:33–35) was not that He would kill an unimaginable number of the Assyrians coming to conquer Jerusalem (Isaiah 36:1–3). God only said He would defend the city and save the survivors of Judah who remained there. When the angel of the Lord killed so many Assyrians in a single night that the army immediately retreated (Isaiah 37:36), the city was rescued. The battle was over.

What the Lord had promised Hezekiah through Isaiah was that Sennacherib would not come into the city. Instead, The Assyrian king would be forced to retrace his steps: back into his own territory (Isaiah 37:34). Through Isaiah's poem (Isaiah 37:22–29), God told Sennacherib he would be turned back like a farmer turns a stubborn ox or mule. The king is not one of the thousands slain by the angel of the Lord, but the shock of a single night's carnage must have been intense. He would have had no reason to stay, and no choice but to head home. He may have felt he was running for his life. Nineveh was the main city of the Assyrian empire.

We're not told if Sennacherib fully realized that Hezekiah's God, the Lord of Israel, was real and endlessly powerful. Or, most humiliatingly, that God had beaten him. But the defeat of the army was only part of God's planned response (Isaiah 37:38).

Isaiah 37:21–38 contains the Lord's response to Hezekiah's humble prayer (Isaiah 37:14–20). Through Isaiah, the Lord first addresses Sennacherib in a poem. He tells the most powerful man on earth at the time that God will turn him around and send him home. Next the Lord promises Hezekiah that Sennacherib will never even approach Jerusalem, let alone attack it. The remnant of Judah will survive and thrive. As the Assyrians plan to engage in a different battle, the Lord destroys nearly the entire army in a single night. Sennacherib goes home. He is later killed by his sons.

Hezekiah is overcome with grief at news that Sennacherib has mocked the Lord and is coming to destroy Jerusalem. God reassures Hezekiah that the Asyrian king will return home to be killed there. Hezekiah prays in the temple, asking the Lord to defend His name and save Judah. Through Isaiah, the Lord reveals to Hezekiah that Jerusalem will not be touched. Assyria's army won't even have the chance to attack. Responding to their aggression and blasphemy, the "angel of the Lord" virtually wipes out the gigantic Assyrian army overnight. Sennacherib returns home and is later killed by his sons.

Isaiah 37 continues the narrative started in Isaiah 36. Assyrian messengers threaten to bring their enormous, nearby army to take Jerusalem. Hezekiah seeks God in response and is reassured that Jerusalem will not see so much as a single Assyrian arrow. The Lord promises to save the city and make the survivors prosper. The angel of the Lord kills an overwhelming number of Assyrian soldiers overnight. Sennacherib returns home and is eventually killed by his own sons. Hezekiah will then face a serious illness and be granted a brief reprieve by God (Isaiah 38).

Isaiah is among the most important prophetic books in the entire Bible. The first segment details God's impending judgment against ancient peoples for sin and idolatry (Isaiah 1—35). The second part of Isaiah briefly explains a failed assault on Jerusalem during the rule of Hezekiah (Isaiah 36—39). The final chapters predict Israel's rescue from Babylonian captivity (Isaiah 40—48), the promised Messiah (Isaiah 49—57), and the final glory of Jerusalem and God's people (Isaiah 58—66).