For Teaching

2 Kings 19: What the Passage Says

148 claims across 37 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What 2 Kings 19 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

The Assyrian threat against Jerusalem continues from the previous chapter. King Hezekiah tears his clothes, goes to the temple, and sends officials to the prophet Isaiah, who answers that the king of Assyria will hear a report, go home, and die there. When Sennacherib sends a letter warning that no nation's god has saved it from him, Hezekiah spreads the letter before the LORD and prays; Isaiah brings back a long answer promising that Sennacherib will not enter the city and will return the way he came. That night the angel of the LORD strikes 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp, Sennacherib goes home to Nineveh, and his sons kill him while he is worshiping in the temple of his god.

Claim by Claim

19:1
- King Hezekiah heard the report.
- Hezekiah tore his clothes.
- Hezekiah covered himself with sackcloth.
- Hezekiah went into the house of the LORD.
19:2
- Hezekiah sent Eliakim, who was over the household, to Isaiah the prophet.
- Hezekiah sent Shebna the scribe to Isaiah the prophet.
- Hezekiah sent the elders of the priests to Isaiah the prophet.
- Those sent were covered with sackcloth.
- Isaiah the prophet was the son of Amoz.
19:3
- They said to Isaiah that this was what Hezekiah said.
- Hezekiah said this day is a day of distress.
- Hezekiah said this day is a day of rebuke.
- Hezekiah said this day is a day of disgrace.
- Hezekiah said children have come to the mouth of the womb.
- Hezekiah said there is no strength to give birth.
19:4
- Hezekiah said perhaps the LORD Isaiah's God will hear all the words of the Rabshakeh.
- The king of Assyria was the Rabshakeh's master.
- The king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh to defy the living God.
- Hezekiah said God will rebuke the words that the LORD Isaiah's God has heard.
- Hezekiah told Isaiah to lift up a prayer for the remnant that is still found.
19:5
- The servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
19:6
- Isaiah spoke to them.
- Isaiah told them what to say to their master.
- Isaiah said this is what the LORD says.
- The LORD said not to be afraid of the words Hezekiah had heard.
- The LORD said the servants of the king of Assyria had blasphemed Him with those words.
19:7
- The LORD said He would put a spirit in the king of Assyria.
- The LORD said the king of Assyria would hear a report.
- The LORD said the king of Assyria would return to his own land.
- The LORD said He would cause the king of Assyria to fall by the sword in his own land.
19:8
- The Rabshakeh returned.
- The Rabshakeh found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah.
- The Rabshakeh had heard that the king had departed from Lachish.
19:9
- The king of Assyria heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush.
- The report said Tirhakah had come out to fight against him.
- The king of Assyria again sent messengers to Hezekiah.
- The messengers carried a message.
19:10
- The message instructed them to speak to Hezekiah king of Judah.
- The message said Hezekiah's God, in whom he trusts, should not deceive him.
- The message said the deception was the claim that Jerusalem would not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
19:11
- The message said Hezekiah had heard what the kings of Assyria did to all the lands.
- The message said the kings of Assyria devoted those lands to destruction.
- The message asked whether Hezekiah would be delivered.
19:12
- The message asked whether the gods of the nations delivered them.
- The message said the sender's fathers destroyed those nations.
- The nations named include Gozan.
- The nations named include Haran.
- The nations named include Rezeph.
- The nations named include the people of Eden who were in Telassar.
19:13
- The message asked where the king of Hamath is.
- The message asked where the king of Arpad is.
- The message asked where the king of the city of Sepharvaim is.
- The message named Hena.
- The message named Ivvah.
19:14
- Hezekiah took the letters from the hand of the messengers.
- Hezekiah read them.
- Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD.
- Hezekiah spread it out before the LORD.
19:15
- Hezekiah prayed before the LORD.
- Hezekiah addressed the LORD as the God of Israel.
- Hezekiah said the LORD is enthroned upon the cherubim.
- Hezekiah said the LORD alone is God over all the kingdoms of the earth.
- Hezekiah said the LORD made the heavens and the earth.
19:16
- Hezekiah asked the LORD to incline His ear and hear.
- Hezekiah asked the LORD to open His eyes and see.
- Hezekiah asked the LORD to hear the words of Sennacherib.
- Sennacherib sent to defy the living God.
- It is unclear whether what Sennacherib sent was the words themselves or the messenger who carried them.
19:17
- Hezekiah said it is true that the kings of Assyria laid waste the nations and their lands.
19:18
- Hezekiah said the kings of Assyria cast the nations' gods into the fire.
- Hezekiah said those gods were not gods.
- Hezekiah said those gods were the work of human hands.
- Hezekiah said those gods were wood and stone.
- Hezekiah said that is why the Assyrians could destroy them.
19:19
- Hezekiah asked the LORD their God to save them from Sennacherib's hand.
- Hezekiah asked this so that all the kingdoms of the earth would know that the LORD alone is God.
19:20
- Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah.
- The message said this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says.
- The LORD said He had heard what Hezekiah prayed to Him concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria.
19:21
- This is the word the LORD spoke concerning Sennacherib.
- The virgin daughter of Zion despises Sennacherib.
- The virgin daughter of Zion mocks Sennacherib.
- The daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head behind Sennacherib.
19:22
- The LORD asked whom Sennacherib had taunted and blasphemed.
- The LORD asked against whom Sennacherib had raised his voice.
- The LORD said Sennacherib lifted his eyes on high.
- The LORD said it was against the Holy One of Israel.
19:23
- The LORD said Sennacherib taunted the Lord by means of his messengers.
- Sennacherib said that with his many chariots he had gone up to the height of the mountains.
- Sennacherib said he had gone up to the far recesses of Lebanon.
- Sennacherib said he would cut down its tall cedars.
- Sennacherib said he would cut down its choice cypresses.
- Sennacherib said he would enter its farthest lodging place.
- Sennacherib said he would enter the forest of its fertile land.
19:24
- Sennacherib said he had dug and drunk foreign waters.
- Sennacherib said he dried up all the streams with the soles of his feet.
- It is unclear whether the streams dried up are those of Egypt or those of besieged places.
19:25
- The LORD asked whether Sennacherib had not heard.
- The LORD said He did it long ago.
- The LORD said He formed it in days of old.
- The LORD said He has now brought it to pass.
- The LORD said the purpose was that Sennacherib should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps.
19:26
- The inhabitants of those cities were short of power.
- The inhabitants were dismayed and ashamed.
- The inhabitants were like the grass of the field.
- The inhabitants were like green herbage.
- The inhabitants were like grass on the housetops.
- The inhabitants were like grain blasted before it has grown.
19:27
- The LORD said He knows Sennacherib's sitting down.
- The LORD said He knows Sennacherib's going out and coming in.
- The LORD said He knows Sennacherib's raging against Him.
19:28
- The LORD said Sennacherib's rage against Him and his arrogance have come up into His ears.
- The LORD said He will put His hook in Sennacherib's nose.
- The LORD said He will put His bridle in Sennacherib's lips.
- The LORD said He will turn Sennacherib back by the way he came.
19:29
- The LORD said this would be a sign to Hezekiah.
- In the first year they will eat what grows of itself.
- In the second year they will eat what springs from that.
- In the third year they are to sow and reap.
- In the third year they are to plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
19:30
- The escaped remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward.
- The escaped remnant of the house of Judah will bear fruit upward.
19:31
- A remnant will go out from Jerusalem.
- Survivors will go out from Mount Zion.
- The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
19:32
- This is what the LORD says concerning the king of Assyria.
- The king of Assyria will not come into this city.
- The king of Assyria will not shoot an arrow there.
- The king of Assyria will not come before it with a shield.
- The king of Assyria will not cast up a siege ramp against it.
19:33
- The king of Assyria will return by the way he came.
- The king of Assyria will not come into this city.
- This is the declaration of the LORD.
19:34
- The LORD will defend this city to save it.
- The LORD will do this for His own sake.
- The LORD will do this for the sake of His servant David.
19:35
- That night the angel of the LORD went out.
- The angel of the LORD struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians.
- They rose early in the morning.
- All of them were dead corpses.
19:36
- Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and went away.
- Sennacherib returned.
- Sennacherib dwelt at Nineveh.
19:37
- Sennacherib was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god.
- Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him with the sword.
- Adrammelech and Sharezer were his sons.
- They escaped into the land of Ararat.
- Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

19:1: Tearing your own clothes and putting on sackcloth (a coarse, dark cloth of goat hair, the cheapest fabric there was) were the standard public signs of grief, dread or mourning. They were meant to be seen; a king doing this in public announced a national emergency.
19:2: "The man in charge of the palace" was the chief officer of the royal household, roughly a prime minister. The "scribe" was likewise a senior minister of state (the king's secretary, who handled correspondence and records), not a copyist.
19:3: The image is of labor that has stalled: the child has reached the birth canal but the mother has no strength left to push. It was a common way of describing a crisis that has reached the point of decision with no strength left to see it through.
19:4: "Rabshakeh" is an Assyrian title, not a personal name, one of the top ranks at the Assyrian court, here acting as the king's spokesman. "The few of us who are left" (traditionally "the remnant") reflects the situation: Sennacherib had already taken dozens of Judah's fortified towns, and Jerusalem with its refugees was nearly all that remained.
19:7: "A spirit" translates a Hebrew word that can mean wind, breath, or an impulse of mind. The sense is that something will be put into the king's thinking that turns him homeward, spelled out in the next words as a report he hears.
19:8: Lachish and Libnah were fortified towns in the lowlands southwest of Jerusalem. Lachish was Judah's second city; Sennacherib's capture of it was carved in detail on the walls of his palace at Nineveh, and those carvings survive.
19:9: "Ethiopia" here is Cush, the kingdom on the Nile south of Egypt (modern Sudan). At this time Cushite kings ruled Egypt itself, so Tirhakah's advance meant an Egyptian army moving against Assyria from the south.
19:11: Assyrian policy after a conquest was mass killing, the burning of towns, and the deportation of survivors to distant parts of the empire. The threat was not exaggeration; the kingdom of Israel to the north had been erased this way about twenty years earlier.
19:12: A list of places already swallowed by Assyria, scattered across northern Mesopotamia and Syria. The point of naming them is that each had its own god and none of them saved it.
19:13: More conquered city-states of Syria and the Euphrates region. "Where is the king of..." means these kings no longer exist, their thrones were wiped out.
19:14: Laying a document open before the LORD in the temple was a recognized act: you placed the physical letter in front of the god you were appealing to, so that the case was formally put before him.
19:15: The cherubim were not infants but composite winged creatures. Two of them, carved in gold, stood over the lid of the ark in the temple's innermost room; the space above them was spoken of as the LORD's throne, with the ark as his footstool.
19:16: Sennacherib ruled Assyria from 705 to 681 BC. Assyria was then the dominant military power of the Near East, and Judah a small tributary kingdom on its edge.
19:18: When Assyria took a city it carried off or burned the statues of its gods, and this was understood by everyone as the defeat of those gods themselves. Hezekiah's answer turns on the difference between a manufactured image and a god.
19:21: Cities were spoken of as women. "Virgin daughter of Zion" means Jerusalem as a young woman never yet forced by an invader, never captured. Zion was the ridge Jerusalem stood on, and the name came to stand for the city itself. Shaking the head at someone was a gesture of mockery, not sympathy.
19:22: "The Holy One of Israel" is a fixed title for the God of Israel, used constantly in the book of Isaiah. "Holy" here carries the sense of set apart, wholly other.
19:23: The forests of Lebanon produced the cedar and cypress timber prized for palaces and temples throughout the Near East, and Assyrian kings boasted in their own inscriptions of reaching them and felling them. Claiming to have driven chariots up mountains was a boast that no terrain could stop him.
19:24: Digging wells in foreign country and drinking its water was a way of saying he had taken possession of the land. Drying up rivers by walking through them was a stock boast: his army was so vast that a river vanished under its feet.
19:25: From here to verse 28 the speaker is God, answering the Assyrian's boast directly. The claim is that the conquests the king credits to himself were long since planned, and that he was the instrument.
19:26: Houses had flat roofs of packed earth over beams. Seed blown up there sprouted quickly in the thin soil and shrivelled just as quickly in the sun, a byword for something that grows fast and comes to nothing.
19:27: "When you sit down, when you go out and when you come in" is an idiom covering the whole of a person's activity, at rest and in motion. The sense is: everything you do.
19:28: Assyrian reliefs show prisoners of war led on a cord attached to a ring through the lip or nose, and the same method controlled draft animals. The image turns the great king into a beast on a lead, driven home.
19:29: Two years' harvests had been lost: an invading army eats or burns the standing crop, and no one sows a field they may not live to reap. "What grows by itself" is the volunteer grain that comes up from spilled seed. The third year, with normal sowing and planting resumed, marks the end of the emergency. Vines take years to bear, so planting them signals confidence in a long peace.
19:31: "The LORD of Armies" (older versions: "LORD of hosts") is a title picturing God at the head of massed forces, heavenly ones, and in some passages Israel's own. "Zeal" here means burning, jealous intensity of purpose, not enthusiasm.
19:32: A siege ramp was an earth and rubble embankment piled against a city wall so battering rams and troops could be pushed up to the top. Building one was the standard Assyrian method, and one survives at Lachish. The promise is that none of the ordinary stages of a siege will even begin.
19:34: David had ruled about three hundred years earlier, had made Jerusalem his capital, and had been promised a lasting royal line. Hezekiah was his descendant, so an appeal to "my servant David" is an appeal to that standing commitment rather than to Hezekiah's own merit.
19:35: The Hebrew word behind "angel" simply means messenger, an agent sent to carry out an errand. The text does not describe how the army died. The Greek historian Herodotus, writing much later, preserved an Egyptian version in which Sennacherib's army was disabled overnight by a plague of mice gnawing their equipment, which some take as a memory of disease in the camp.
19:36: Nineveh, on the Tigris opposite modern Mosul in Iraq, was Sennacherib's capital and the largest city in the world at the time.
19:37: Nisroch is not a god known from Assyrian records; the name is probably a corruption of one that is. Sennacherib was in fact murdered by one or more of his sons in 681 BC, twenty years after this campaign, and Esarhaddon then fought his way to the throne. "Ararat" (older versions: "Armenia") is Urartu, the mountainous kingdom north of Assyria around Lake Van in modern eastern Turkey.

Read 2 Kings 19