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Isaías 37

BLIVRE · Chapter 37/66

1E aconteceu que, quando o rei Ezequias ouviu [isso] ,ele rasgou suas roupas, cobriu-se de saco, e entrou na casa do SENHOR.

2Então ele enviou Eliaquim o administrador da casa real, Sebna o escriba, e os anciãos dos sacerdotes, cobertos de sacos, ao profeta Isaías, filho de Amoz.

3E lhe disseram: Assim diz Ezequias: Este dia é um dia de angústia, de repreensão, e de blasfêmia; pois os filhos chegaram ao parto, porém não há força para que possam nascer.

4Talvez o SENHOR venha a ouvir as palavras de Rabsaqué, a quem seu senhor, o rei da Assíria, enviou, para afrontar ao Deus vivente; e repreenda as palavras que o SENHOR teu Deus tem ouvido. Faze, pois, oração pelos restantes, que [ainda] se encontram.

5E os servos do rei vieram até Isaías,

6E Isaías lhes disse: Assim direis a vosso senhor: Assim diz o SENHOR: Não temas das palavras que ouviste, com as quais os servos do rei da Assíria me blasfemaram.

7Eis que porei nele um espírito de tal maneira que, quando ouvir um rumor, ele voltará à sua terra; e eu o derrubarei pela espada em sua [própria] terra.

8Então Rabsaqué voltou, e achou ao rei da Assíria lutando contra Libna, pois tinha ouvido que ele [já] tinha saído de Laquis.

9E ele, ao ouvir dizer que Tiraca, rei de Cuxe, tinha saído para fazer guerra contra ele, então, após ouvir, enviou mensageiros a Ezequias, dizendo:

10Assim falareis a Ezequias, rei de Judá, dizendo: Que teu Deus, em quem confias, não te engane, dizendo: Jerusalém não será entregue nas mãos do rei da Assíria.

11Eis que tens ouvido o que os reis da Assíria fizeram a todas as terras, destruindo-as por completo. E tu, escaparias?

12Por acaso as livraram os deuses das nações as quais meus pais destruíram, tal como Gozã, Harã e Rezefe, e os filhos de Éden que estavam em Telassar?

13Onde está o rei da Hamate, o rei de Arpade, o rei de Sefarvaim, ou Hena e Iva?

14E Ezequias, recebendo as cartas das mãos dos mensageiros, e tendo as lido, subiu à casa do SENHOR, e Ezequias as estendeu perante o SENHOR.

15Então Ezequias orou ao SENHOR, dizendo:

16Ó SENHOR dos exércitos, Deus de Israel, que habitas entre os querubins; tu, só tu, és Deus de todos os reinos da terra; tu fizeste os céus e a terra.

17Inclina teu ouvido, ó SENHOR, e ouve; abre os teus olhos, SENHOR, e olha; e ouve todas as palavras de Senaqueribe que ele enviou para afrontar o Deus vivente.

18É verdade, SENHOR, que os reis da Assíria assolaram a todas as terras e seus territórios,

19E lançaram seus deuses ao fogo, porque não eram deuses, mas sim obras de mãos humanas, madeira e pedra; por isso os destruíram.

20Agora, SENHOR nosso Deus, livra-nos das mãos dele, [e] assim todos os reinos da terra saberão que tu, só tu, és o SENHOR.

21Então Isaías, filho de Amós, mandou dizer a Ezequias: Assim diz o SENHOR, Deus de Israel: Quanto ao que me pediste sobre Senaqueribe, rei da Assíria,

22Esta é a palavra que o SENHOR falou sobre ele: A virgem, a filha de Sião, te despreza, zomba de ti; a filha de Jerusalém balança a cabeça após ti.

23A quem afrontaste? [De quem] blasfemaste? E contra quem levantaste a voz, e levantaste aos olhos arrogantemente? Contra o Santo de Israel!

24Por meio de teus servos afrontaste ao Senhor, e disseste: Com a minha multidão de carruagens eu subi aos cumes dos montes, aos lugares remotos do Líbano; e cortarei seus altos cedros, e seus melhores ciprestes, e virei a seu extremo cume, ao bosque de seu campo fértil.

25Eu cavei, e bebi as águas; e com as plantas dos meus pés secarei todos os rios do Egito.

26Por acaso não ouviste que desde muito antes eu fiz isto, e deste os dias antigos o tinha planejado? Agora eu fiz isto acontecer, para que tu fosses o que destruirias as cidades fortificadas, [reduzindo-as] a amontoados de ruínas.

27Por isso os moradores delas, com as mãos impotentes, ficaram atemorizados e envergonhados; eram [como] a erva do campo, e a grama verde, o capim dos telhados e o trigo queimado antes de crescer.

28Porém eu sei o teu sentar, o teu sair, o teu entrar, e o teu furor contra mim.

29Por causa de teu furor contra mim, e teu tumulto que subiu aos meus ouvidos, por isso porei meu anzol em teu nariz, e meu freio em tua boca; e te farei voltar pelo caminho em que vieste.

30E isto será por sinal para ti, [Ezequias] : este ano se comerá daquilo que nascer de si mesmo, e no segundo ano do que daí proceder; porém no terceiro ano semeai e colhei; e plantai vinhas, e comei seus frutos.

31Pois os sobreviventes da casa de Judá, o remanescente, voltará a formar raízes abaixo, e dará fruto acima.

32Porque de Jerusalém sairá o remanescente, e do monte de Sião os que sobreviverem; o zelo do SENHOR dos exércitos fará isto.

33Portanto assim diz o SENHOR quanto ao rei da Assíria: Ele não entrará nesta cidade, nem lançará flecha nela; nem também virá diante dela com escudo, nem levantará cerco contra ela.

34Pelo mesmo caminho que veio, nele voltará; mas nesta cidade ele não entrará, diz o SENHOR;

35Porque eu defenderei esta cidade para a livrar, por causa de mim e por causa do meu servo Davi.

36Então o anjo do SENHOR saiu, e feriu no acampamento dos assírios cento e oitenta mil [deles] ; e levantando-se pela manhã cedo, eis que todos eram cadáveres.

37Assim Senaqueribe, rei da Assíria, partiu-se, e foi embora, voltou, e ficou em Nínive.

38E sucedeu que, enquanto ele estava prostrado na casa de seu deus Nisroque, seus filhos Adrameleque e Sarezer o feriram a espada; então eles escaparam para a terra de Ararate; e Esar-Hadom, seu filho, reinou em seu lugar.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Facing the Assyrian threat, King Hezekiah seeks out Isaiah and prays fervently in the temple. God responds with the promise to deliver Jerusalem, and that very night an angel of the Lord strikes down 185,000 Assyrian soldiers, forcing Sennacherib to retreat and later be killed by his own sons.

Explanation

This is one of the most dramatic and theologically central moments in the book: Hezekiah's prayer in the temple, physically spreading out Sennacherib's threatening letter 'before the Lord,' models an honest and vulnerable way of seeking divine help in extreme crisis. The sudden destruction of the Assyrian army (paralleled in 2 Kings 19:35) is one of the most dramatic miracles of the Old Testament, and Sennacherib's later assassination by his own sons in Nineveh is confirmed by Babylonian and Assyrian records independent of the Bible. The promise that 'the remnant that escapes will take root' returns to Isaiah's central theme of hope even amid devastation. The application today is that bringing our threats and fears directly to God in honest prayer, as Hezekiah did, is a valid model of faith in crisis.

Fun facts

  • Sennacherib's assassination by his own sons (v. 38) is confirmed by independent Babylonian records, including the 'Babylonian Chronicle,' which mentions his death in violent circumstances in 681 BC.
  • Hezekiah's practice of literally spreading out the threatening letter 'before the Lord' in the temple (v. 14) reflects an ancient custom of physically presenting important documents before a deity as a way of seeking judgment or intervention.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Isaías 37:1Hezekiah reacts the same way the officials did at the end of the previous chapter, with torn clothes and sackcloth, but he goes further, entering the temple himself to seek God's direct help in the face of the Assyrian threat.
  2. Isaías 37:2Sending for the prophet Isaiah is Hezekiah's next step after praying: seeking a specific prophetic word for the crisis, a common practice among the kings of Judah in moments of national danger.
  3. Isaías 37:3Comparing the situation to children come to the birth with no strength to bring them forth describes distress at its peak: the danger has reached a critical point, but there is no capacity to resolve it alone. It is a cry for help, not a medical report.
  4. Isaías 37:4Hezekiah asks Isaiah to pray for "the remnant that is left," that is, for the survivors of Judah still remaining after Assyria has already taken the other fortified cities. It is the same theme of the remnant that has appeared since chapter 6.
  5. Isaías 37:5A transitional verse, simply recording that Hezekiah's servants come to Isaiah, linking the king's cry for help to the prophetic answer that follows.
  6. Isaías 37:6"Blasphemed" sums up what Rabshakeh did in the previous chapter: treating the God of Judah as incapable before Assyria. Isaiah's answer begins by telling Hezekiah not to fear precisely these words.
  7. Isaías 37:7The promise is twofold: God will send "a blast" upon him, as the KJV puts it, that will make Sennacherib hear a rumor and withdraw, and afterward he will fall by the sword in his own land. Both parts are fulfilled in the closing verses of the chapter.
  8. Isaías 37:8Rabshakeh returns to the king and finds him already warring against Libnah, no longer Lachish: a geographical detail showing the Assyrian campaign moving through the cities of Judah while negotiations with Jerusalem went on in parallel.
  9. Isaías 37:9Tirhakah was a pharaoh of Egypt's twenty-fifth dynasty, of Nubian, that is Ethiopian, origin, who did in fact rule Egypt at this time. The news that he is coming to attack is "a rumour" that begins to fulfill the promise of verse 7.
  10. Isaías 37:10Sennacherib's second message repeats the same tactic as the previous chapter, but now by letter instead of a public speech: undermining Hezekiah's confidence in the promise that Jerusalem would not fall.
  11. Isaías 37:11Sennacherib's argument is historical: he lists his track record of success against every land already attacked, trying to prove that no exception should apply to Judah.
  12. Isaías 37:12Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden were territories already conquered by Assyria, some of them also mentioned in actual Assyrian records. The list functions as proof of military track record meant to intimidate Hezekiah.
  13. Isaías 37:13Hamath, Arpad, and Sepharvaim reappear, the same names Rabshakeh already used in chapter 36. It is the same list of victories repeated in a letter, reinforcing the psychological pressure in writing.
  14. Isaías 37:14Spreading the letter before the Lord in the temple is a physical gesture of laying the problem before God, almost as if the written threat needed to be read by Him too, not merely handed over in prayer.
  15. Isaías 37:15A simple transitional line introducing Hezekiah's prayer, one of the few moments in the book where the words of a king of Judah, rather than the prophet, are recorded in full.
  16. Isaías 37:16Hezekiah opens his prayer by calling God "Lord of hosts" and stressing that He is God of all the kingdoms of the earth, not just of Judah. It is a direct answer to Rabshakeh's mockery, which treated Him as just another local god.
  17. Isaías 37:17Asking God to "open thine eyes" and "incline thine ear," as the KJV has it, is a way of saying: pay personal attention to this, do not let it pass. It is the language of urgent pleading in the face of Sennacherib's blasphemy.
  18. Isaías 37:18Hezekiah acknowledges that the facts cited by Sennacherib are true: Assyria really has laid waste all those lands. He does not deny the military record, he only disagrees with the conclusion Sennacherib draws from it.
  19. Isaías 37:19Hezekiah's argument is that the gods defeated by other nations were no gods at all, but wood and stone, the work of men's hands, with no real power, which is why they fell. It is the distinction he asks God to note about Himself.
  20. Isaías 37:20The prayer's final request goes beyond Judah's survival: that the victory serve to prove to all the kingdoms of the earth that the Lord alone is God. It is a matter of divine honor, not just national security.
  21. Isaías 37:21Isaiah's answer begins formally, confirming that Hezekiah's prayer was heard even before revealing its content, which follows in the next verses as a taunting poem against Sennacherib.
  22. Isaías 37:22This is God's answer, through Isaiah, to Rabshakeh's speech: Jerusalem is described as a virgin daughter who laughs and shakes her head in scorn at anyone who thought he could intimidate her. The threat becomes grounds for mockery against the aggressor himself.
  23. Isaías 37:23The rhetorical question turns the accusation back around: Sennacherib thought he was merely warring against Judah, but in truth he had blasphemed against "the Holy One of Israel," the name Isaiah frequently uses for God.
  24. Isaías 37:24The words attributed to Sennacherib, of cutting down the cedars of Lebanon and climbing the highest mountains, are the typical military arrogance of conquering kings of the day, who liked to boast of nearly impossible feats.
  25. Isaías 37:25Drying up the rivers of Egypt with the sole of his feet alone is deliberate exaggeration of Assyrian vainglory, willing to claim control even over the natural features of lands it had not even fully conquered.
  26. Isaías 37:26God's response turns the argument around: everything Assyria did was not its own feat but a divine plan laid out long before. Sennacherib is reduced to an instrument of a project that is not his own.
  27. Isaías 37:27Comparing the conquered peoples to grass, the green herb, and corn blasted before it grows up reinforces that Assyria's victory proves no strength of its own: they were already weak targets, fated to fall according to the plan described.
  28. Isaías 37:28Saying God knows "thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in," as the KJV puts it, is a way of saying that not one of Sennacherib's movements goes unnoticed, not even his personal rage against the God of Israel.
  29. Isaías 37:29The image of a hook in the nose and a bridle in the lips is one of taming an animal — as though Sennacherib were an ox or a horse led back by the same way he came. It is the ancient way of saying that the most powerful king in the region is nothing more than an animal on God's leash.
  30. Isaías 37:30The sign given to Hezekiah is agricultural and practical: eating for two years only what grows of itself, without sowing, because the war prevents normal farming, but by the third year it is already possible to return to the fields, a sign that the danger will pass.
  31. Isaías 37:31To "take root downward, and bear fruit upward," as the KJV puts it, describes the remnant of Judah beginning to grow again after the crisis, an agricultural image of slow but sure recovery.
  32. Isaías 37:32The theme of the remnant returns here explicitly: a remnant will go forth from Jerusalem and survive, and the text credits this survival to the zeal of the Lord Himself, not to Judah's military strength.
  33. Isaías 37:33The promise spells out what will not happen: no arrow, no shield, no siege bank will so much as reach the city. It is a very specific guarantee, contrasting with Rabshakeh's threatening speech in the earlier chapters.
  34. Isaías 37:34"By the way that he came, by the same shall he return" repeats the same image from the previous verses, of the hook in the nose and the bridle in the lips: Sennacherib is led back without managing to advance.
  35. Isaías 37:35The reason given for Jerusalem's protection combines two motives: the honor of God Himself and the ancient promise made to David, tying this specific crisis to a much older covenant with the royal dynasty.
  36. Isaías 37:36The account of an angel striking down a hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrian soldiers in a single night does not explain the mechanism. Historians have raised hypotheses such as a sudden epidemic in the camp, but the biblical text only states that the siege was broken in a way no one expected.
  37. Isaías 37:37After the disaster in the camp, Sennacherib really does withdraw and return to Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian empire. The biblical account is confirmed by Assyrian records, which also describe the end of this siege without the conquest of Jerusalem.
  38. Isaías 37:38This assassination of Sennacherib by his own sons, inside the temple of his god Nisroch, is one of the few episodes in the Bible confirmed by outside records. Assyrian and Babylonian annals also tell that the king was killed by a son years after returning from the siege of Jerusalem.

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