2 Kings 19:20-37

5. Yahweh’s answer 19:20-37

God sent Hezekiah the news of what He would do, and why, through Isaiah. The "virgin" daughter of Zion (2 Kings 19:21) refers to Jerusalem as a city that a foreign foe had never violated. The "Holy One of Israel" (2 Kings 19:22), a favorite name of God with Isaiah (cf. Isaiah 5:24; Isaiah 30:11-15; et al.), stresses His uniqueness and superiority. On some monuments Assyrian conquerors pictured themselves as leading their captives with a line that passed through rings that they had placed in the victims’ noses. [Note: Cf. Luckenbill, 2:314-15, 319.] God promised to do to them as they had done to others (2 Kings 19:28; cf. Galatians 6:7).

An immediate sign helped Hezekiah believe in the long-range deliverance God promised (2 Kings 19:29). Signs were either predictions of natural events, which came to pass and thus confirmed the prediction (cf. Exodus 3:12; 1 Samuel 2:34; Jeremiah 44:29), or outright miracles that proved God’s work in history (cf. Isaiah 7:14; Isaiah 38:7). [Note: Keil. p. 454.] The Israelites had not been able to plant crops around Jerusalem because of the besieging Assyrians. God promised to feed His people for two years with what came up naturally, namely, as a result of previous cultivation. This was a blessing of fertility for trust and obedience (cf. Deuteronomy 28:33). In the third year they would again return to their regular cycle of sowing and reaping. Like the crops, the remnant of the people remaining after the invasions of Israel and Judah would also multiply under God’s blessing. As for Sennacherib, God would keep him away from Jerusalem (2 Kings 19:32-33). Ironically, the Assyrian king suffered assassination in the temple of his god, who was not able to deliver him. This was the very thing he had charged Yahweh with being unable to do for Judah. Extra-biblical sources corroborate Sennacherib’s assassination, though they mention only one assassin. [Note: See Cogan and Tadmore, pp. 239-40.]