Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Kings 19:35
And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they [were] all dead corpses.
35. And it came to pass that night ] For this the record in Isaiah has only ‘Then’. It would appear from the history that the destruction of his army took place before Sennacherib himself could have reached Jerusalem.
the angel of the Lord went out ] R.V. went forth. The R.V. assimilates to Isaiah. In 2Ch 32:21 the record is, ‘The Lord sent an angel which cut off all the mighty men of valour, and the leaders and captains in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land’.
and when they [R.V. men ] arose early ] The number of the slain (185,000) was exceeding great, and the Chronicler’s statement makes the loss more terrible by saying that among those destroyed were all the leaders of the host.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The camp of the Assyrians – Which was now moved to Pelusium, if we may trust Herodotus; or which, at any rate, was at some considerable distance from Jerusalem.
When they arose early in the morning, behold … – These words form the only trustworthy data that we possess for determining to any extent the manner of the destruction now worked. They imply that there was no disturbance during the night, no alarm, no knowledge on the part of the living that their comrades were dying all around them by thousands. All mere natural causes must be rejected, and God must be regarded as having slain the men in their sleep without causing disturbance, either by pestilence or by that visitation of which English law speaks. The most nearly parallel case is the destruction of the first-born, Exo 12:29.
The Egyptian version of this event recorded in Herodotus is that, during the night, silently and secretly, an innumerable multitude of field-mice spread themselves through the Assyrian host, and gnawed their quivers, bows, and shield-straps, so as to render them useless. When morning broke, the Assyrians fled hastily, and the Egyptians pursuing put a vast number to the sword.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
2Ki 19:35
And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out.
The destruction of Sennacheribs army
I. That this deliverance was miraculous, because–
1. It was foretold with absolute certainty (2Ki 19:22-23). Certainty is not an element in human plans. Ye know not what shall be on the morrow (Jam 4:14).
2. It is described as having been wrought by direct superhuman agency.
II. That the deliverance was wrought because of the characters of three men.
1. The character of Hezekiah.
2. The character of David (2Ki 19:34). So that Davids character had an influence in saving Jerusalem at this time.
3. The character of Sennacherib: From his words here recorded, his pride, his daring opposition to Jehovah are revealed.
Therefore the narrative most impressively bears witness–
1. To the fact that God is influenced by human character in His government of the world. A God who would deal with His creatures without regard to their moral character would not command our reverence and love. What would be thought of a human ruler or father who acted thus?
2. That the administration of just punishment is compatible with, is indeed a necessary phase of, the purest benevolence. The angels of God are the most benevolent, because the most perfect, of Gods creatures. But they can smite the transgressor as well as succour the afflicted. The removal of the instruments of tyranny from the earth is an act of pure benevolence.
3. That those who live morally above their age, will live beyond their age. David, although an imperfect man, lived upon a higher level of goodness than most of his contemporaries, therefore he has a part in the salvation of his much-loved city long after he ceased to reign in it.
4. He alone can turn the afflictions of life into blessings who has learned to pray. Hezekiahs prayer had much to do with averting the catastrophe which threatened his people. The message to him from God was, that which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, I have heard. (Outlines from Sermons by a London Minister.)
The destroying angel
The ministry of angels, for good or evil, has always been a subject of mystery and of interest to the human mind. Throughout all the creeds of the Eastern world a belief in the active and frequent interference of the angelic host is generally held. The subject of angels occupies no inconsiderable portion of the Koran. Angels good or ill form the Suras of the Persians and the Rakshusas of the Hindoos. In the Old Testament of the Jews, in the New Testament of the Christians, angels are not uncommonly introduced. That God does make His angels ministering spirits, we have the authority of Scripture for asserting; but in what way they act, what appearances they present, what divisions they consist of amidst the varied orders of thrones, dominions, princedoms, powers, we know not. Lessons to be learnt:
I. That anger is at times commendable. We find the Deity moved to hot anger against the Assyrian host, taking vengeance upon the multitude that formed the Assyrian army. It is true, that to say, God is angry, or jealous, is but to speak after the manner of men, is but to attribute human motives to the Godhead. Yet, if we could imagine anger to possess the Deity, even in the sense in which we use the word anger, it would be no diminution of His Divine perfections. Strife against sin, against wrong-doing, against injustice, against the oppression of the weak, against falsehood, against hypocrisy, this was implanted in us for the noblest purposes, this, in fact, is a virtue, and not a vice.
II. That we should see Gods hand in all the revolutions of history.
III. That a haughty spirit oftentimes precedes a fall. Pride, in its egotistical wilfulness, vanity, in its ridiculous pretensions, must be rooted out of the character before any good Christian seed can be developed. Every one that exalteth himself, whether in a spirit of godless self-sufficiency like Sennacherib, or of religious self-complacency like the Pharisees of old, shall be abased; and every one that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Before honour is humility.
IV. That the dispensations of providence are sometimes very sudden in their action. On the very night that Sennacherib encamped, filled doubtless with an idea of his own grandeur, and with a belief that he was about to add to his glory and power by a decisive victory on the morrow, in that night the angel of the Lord smote his mighty strength to the ground. The only thing to be looked for in the conduct of the French on any occasion, says a cynical observer, is the unexpected Might not the same statement, in a greater or less degree, be made about all nationalities and about all individuals?
V. That we should lay all our troubles and weaknesses before God in prayer. (R. Young, M. A.)
The destruction of Sennacherib
I. The events of this night develop the force of wickedness. How rampant was wickedness this night. Wickedness has ever had great power in this world. Wealth, dominion, and numbers, have ever been at its command. Ever since the Fall, it has been, and still is, the power whose reign is the most extensive. Like the Assyrian hosts, it invades the most sacred scenes, and carries alarm into the most sainted spirits. The fact that wickedness is allowed such power on this earth shows:
1. The regard which God has for the free agency of the human mind. At first He was pleased to endow man with a power of free action and the attributes of responsibility, and although he has sinned and abused this power, the Almighty does not check its operations. He sets before man the good and the evil, and leaves him to make his choice. If he chooses the evil, and is determined to give himself up to it, He allows him often times to run such lengths, that he becomes a Pharaoh, a Sennacherib, a Nebuchadnezzar, a Herod, or a Napoleon. The fact that wickedness is allowed such power on this earth shows:
2. The wonderful forbearance of God. How wonderful it is that He, who could with a word annihilate every rebel in His universe, should allow His intelligent creatures to live in hostility to Him and His universe. How great His forbearance! How great His forbearance with the Pharaohs who continued to oppress His chosen people for so many generations; with the antediluvian world; with the Jewish nation, etc., etc. Why does He not crush the sinner at once with the first sin? Why does He allow him to go on for years transgressing His laws? The answer is, He waiteth to be gracious. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count, etc. The fact that wickedness is allowed such power on this earth, shows:
3. The certainty of a future retribution–It will not always be thus.
II. The events of this night develop the force of justice. The angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians.
1. Justice will not always sleep. Indeed, it never sleeps; it only seems to.
2. Justice, when roused, does its work with ease. One angel or agent now destroyed these one hundred and eighty-five thousand armed men.
3. The work of justice involves ruin to the wicked, but salvation to the good. The waters that destroyed the old world bore in safety in its bosom righteous Noah and his family. The sea that engulfed Pharaoh and his host made a highway for the ransomed to pass through; and now the blow that crushed one hundred and eighty-five thousand men, delivered Jerusalem from destruction.
III. The events of this night develop the force of prayer. We learn from the preceding verses of this chapter, that when pious Hezekiah the king received haughty and blasphemous threats of his countrys destruction from Rabshakeh, the minister of Sennacherib, that he took the letter which contained it, read it, and went up into the house of the Lord, and spread it before God (2Ki 19:14.)
1. Observe Hezekiahs prayer (2Ki 19:15-19).
2. Observe the answer (2Ki 19:32-34). Therefore, thus saith the Lord, concerning the King of Asyna, etc.
From this subject we learn two things:
1. That wickedness, however triumphant, must end in ruin.
2. That goodness, however threatened, shall end in a glorious deliverance. What are these which are arrayed in white robes, and whence came they? These are they which came out of great tribulation. (Homilist.)
Gods method with hostile evil
As two carbon points when the electric stream is poured upon them are gnawed to nothingness by the fierce heat, and you can see them wasting before your eyes, so the concentrated ardour of the breath of God falls upon the hostile evil, and lo! it is not. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 35. That night] The very night after the blasphemous message had been sent, and this comfortable prophecy delivered.
The angel of the Lord went out] I believe this angel or messenger of the Lord was simply a suffocating or pestilential WIND; by which the Assyrian army was destroyed, as in a moment, without noise confusion or any warning. 1Kg 20:30. Thus was the threatening, 2Kg 19:7, fulfilled, I will send a BLAST upon him; for he had heard the rumour that his territories were invaded; and on his way to save his empire, in one night the whole of his army was destroyed, without any one even seeing who had hurt them. This is called an angel or messenger of the Lord: that is, something immediately sent by him to execute his judgments.
When they arose early] That is, Sennacherib, and probably a few associates, who were preserved as witnesses and relaters of this most dire disaster. Rab-shakeh, no doubt, perished with the rest of the army.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
That night; either,
1. In the night following this message of the prophet to Hezekiah; or,
2. In that famous night when God destroyed the Assyrians, it was done in this manner. For such expressions are oft used of an indefinite and uncertain time, as that day is frequently taken, as Isa 4:1; 26:1; 27:1, &c. Smote in the camp, with pestilence, or some other sudden and mortal stroke. The camp of the Assyrians; either before Libnah, or in some other place near Jerusalem, where they were encamped.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
35. in the morning . . . they wereall dead corpsesIt was the miraculous interposition of theAlmighty that defended Jerusalem. As to the secondary agent employedin the destruction of the Assyrian army, it is most probable that itwas effected by a hot south wind, the simoon, such as to this dayoften envelops and destroys whole caravans. This conjecture issupported by 2Ki 19:7; Jer 51:1.The destruction was during the night; the officers and soldiers,being in full security, were negligent; their discipline was relaxed;the camp guards were not alert, or perhaps they themselves were thefirst taken off, and those who slept, not wrapped up, imbibedthe poison plentifully. If this had been an evening of dissolutemirth (no uncommon thing in a camp), their joy (perhaps for avictory), or “the first night of their attacking the city,”says JOSEPHUS, became, byits effects, one means of their destruction [CALMET,Fragments].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
[See comments on 2Ki 19:1]
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The fulfilment of the divine promise. – 2Ki 19:35. “It came to pass in that night, that the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the army of the Assyrian 185,000 men; and when they (those that were left, including the king) rose up in the morning, behold there were they all (i.e., all who had perished) dead corpses,” i.e., they had died in their sleep. is added to strengthen : lifeless corpses. is in all probability the night following the day on which Isaiah had foretold to Hezekiah the deliverance of Jerusalem. Where the Assyrian army was posted at the time when this terrible stroke fell upon it is not stated, since the account is restricted to the principal fact. One portion of it was probably still before Jerusalem; the remainder were either in front of Libnah (2Ki 19:8), or marching against Jerusalem. From the fact that Sennacherib’s second embassy (2Ki 19:9.) was not accompanied by a body of troops, it by no means follows that the large army which had come with the first embassy (2Ki 18:17) had withdrawn again, or had even removed to Libnah on the return of Rabshakeh to his king (2Ki 19:8). The very opposite may be inferred with much greater justice from 2Ki 19:32. And the smiting of 185,000 men by an angel of the Lord by no means presupposes that the whole of Sennacherib’s army was concentrated at one spot. The blow could certainly fall upon the Assyrians wherever they were standing or were encamped. The “angel of the Lord” is the same angel that smote as the first-born of Egypt (Exo 12:23, compared with Exo 12:12 and Exo 12:13), and inflicted the pestilence upon Israel after the numbering of the people by David (2Sa 24:15-16). The last passage renders the conjecture a very probable one, that the slaying of the Assyrians was also effected by a terrible pestilence. But the number of the persons slain – 185,000 in a single night – so immensely surpasses the effects even of the most terrible plagues, that this fact cannot be interpreted naturally; and the deniers of miracle have therefore felt obliged to do violence to the text, and to pronounce either the statement that it was “the same night” or the number of the slain a mythical exaggeration.
(Note: The assertion of Thenius, that 2Ki 19:35-37 are borrowed from a different source from 2Ki 18:13-19, 2Ki 18:34 and 20:1-19, rests upon purely arbitrary suppositions and groundless assumptions, and is only made in the interest of the mythical interpretation of the miracle. And his conclusion, that “ since the catastrophe was evidently (?) occasioned by the sudden breaking out of a pestilence, the scene of it was no doubt the pestilential Egypt, ” is just as unfounded, – as if Egypt were the only land in which a pestilence could suddenly have broken out. – The account given by Herodotus (ii. 141), that on the prayer of king Sethon, a priest of Vulcan, the deity promised him victory over the great advancing army of Sennacherib, and that during the night mice spread among the enemy (i.e., in the Assyrian camp at Pelusium), and ate up the quivers and bows, and the leather straps of the shields, so that the next morning they were obliged to flee without their weapons, and many were cut down, is imply a legendary imitation of our account, i.e., an Egyptian variation of the defeat of Sennacherib in Judah. The eating up of the Assyrian weapons by mice is merely the explanation given to Herodotus by the Egyptian priests of the hieroglyphical legend on the standing figure of Sethos at Memphis, from which we cannot even gather the historical fact that Sennacherib really advanced as far as Pelusium.)
2Ki 19:36 This divine judgment compelled Sennacherib to retreat without delay, and to return to Nineveh, as Isaiah 28 and 32, had predicted. The heaping up of the verbs: “he decamped, departed, and returned,” expresses the hurry of the march home. , “he sat, i.e., remained, in Nineveh,” implies not merely that Sennacherib lived for some time after his return, but also that he did not undertake any fresh expedition against Judah. On Nineveh see at Gen 10:11.
2Ki 19:37 2Ki 19:37 contains an account of Sennacherib’s death. When he was worshipping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer slew him, and fled into the land of Ararat, and his son Esarhaddon became king in his stead. With regard to , Nisroch, all that seems to be firmly established is that he was an eagle-deity, and represented by the eagle-or vulture-headed human figure with wings, which is frequently depicted upon the Assyrian monuments, “not only in colossal proportions upon the walls and watching the portals of the rooms, but also constantly in the groups upon the embroidered robes. When it is introduced in this way, we see it constantly fighting with other mythical animals, such as human-headed oxen or lions; and in these conflicts it always appears to be victorious,” from which we may infer that it was a type of the supreme deity (see Layard’s Nineveh and its Remains). The eagle was worshipped as a god by the Arabs (Pococke, Specim. pp. 94, 199), was regarded as sacred to Melkarth by the Phoenicians ( Nonnus, Dionys. xl. 495,528), and, according to a statement of Philo. Bybl. (in Euseb. Praepar. evang. i. 10), that Zoroaster taught that the supreme deity was represented with an eagle’s head, it was also a symbol of Ormuzd among the Persians; consequently Movers ( Phniz. i. pp. 68, 506, 507) regards Nisroch as the supreme deity of the Assyrians. It is not improbable that it was also connected with the constellation of the eagle (see Ideler, Ursprung der Sternnamen, p. 416). On the other hand, the current interpretation of the name from ( , Chald.; nsr , Arab.), eagle, vulture, with the Persian adjective termination ok or ach , is very doubtful, not merely on account of the in , but chiefly because this name does not occur in Assyrian, but simply Asar, Assar, and Asarak as the name of a deity which is met with in many Assyrian proper names. The last is also adopted by the lxx, who ( ed. Aldin. Compl.) have rendered by in Isaiah, and ( cod. Vatic.) in 2 Kings, by the side of which the various readings in our text ( cod. Vat.) and in Isaiah are evidently secondary readings emended from the Hebrew, since Josephus ( Ant. x. 1, 5) has the form , which is merely somewhat “Graecized.” The meaning of these names is still in obscurity, even if there should be some foundation for the assumption that Assar belongs to the same root as the name of the people and land, Asshur. The connection between the form Nisroch and Asarak is also still obscure. Compare the collection which J. G. Mller has made of the different conjectures concerning this deity in the Art. Nisroch in Herzog’s Cycl. – Adrammelech, according to 2Ki 17:31, was the name of a deity of Sepharvaim, which was here borne by the king’s son. , Sharezer, is said to mean “prince of fire,” and was probably also borrowed from a deity. (Isa.) is wanting in our text, but is supplied by the Masora in the Keri. The “land of Ararat ” was a portion of the high land of Armenia; according to Moses v. Chorene, the central portion of it with the mountains of the same name (see at Gen 8:4). The slaying of Sennacherib is also confirmed by Alex. Polyhistor, or rather Berosus (in Euseb. Chr. Armen. i. p. 43), who simply names, however, a son Ardumusanus as having committed the murder, and merely mentions a second Asordanius as viceroy of Babylon.
(Note: With regard to the statement of Abydenus in Euseb. l. c. p. 53, that Sennacherib was followed by Nergilus, who was slain by his son Adrameles, who again was murdered by his brother Axerdis, and its connection with Berosus and the biblical account, see M. v. Niebuhr, Geschichte Assurs, pp. 361ff. Nergilus is probably the same person as Sharezer, and Axerdis as Esarhaddon.)
The identity of the latter with Esarhaddon is beyond all doubt. The name , Esar-cha-don, consisting of two parts with the guttural inserted, the usual termination in Assyrian and Babylonian, Assar-ach, is spelt in the lxx, in Tobit – probably formed from – – by a transposition of the letters, – by Josephus , by Berosus (in the armen. Euseb.) Asordanes, by Abyden. ibid. Axerdis, in the Canon Ptol. , and lastly in Ezr 4:10 mutilated into , Osnappar (Chald.), and in the lxx ; upon the Assyrian monuments, according to Oppert, Assur-akh-iddin (cf. M. v. Niebuhr, Gesch. Ass. p. 38). The length of his reign is uncertain. The statements of Berosus, that he was first of all viceroy of Babylon, and then for eight years king of Assyria, and that of the Canon Ptol., that he reigned for thirteen years in Babylon, are decidedly incorrect. Brandis ( Rerum Assyr. tempora emend. p. 41) conjectures that he reigned twenty-eight years, but in his work Ueber den histor. Gewinn, pp. 73, 74, he suggests seventeen years. M. v. Niebuhr ( ut sup. p. 77), on the other hand, reckons his reign at twenty-four years.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Assyrian Army Destroyed. | B. C. 710. |
35 And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. 37 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: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.
Sometimes it was long ere prophecies were accomplished and promises performed; but here the word was no sooner spoken than the work was done.
I. The army of Assyria was entirely routed. That night which immediately followed the sending of this message to Hezekiah, when the enemy had just set down before the city and were preparing (as we now say) to open the trenches, that night was the main body of their army slain upon the spot by an angel, v. 35. Hezekiah had not force sufficient to sally out upon them and attack their camp, nor would God do it by sword or bow; but he sent his angel, a destroying angel, in the dead of the night, to make an assault upon them, which their sentinels, though ever so wakeful, could neither discover nor resist. It was not by the sword of a mighty man or of a mean man, that is, not of any man at all, but of an angel, that the Assyrians army was to fall (Isa. xxxi. 8), such an angel as slew the first-born of Egypt. Josephus says it was done by a pestilential disease, which was instant death to them. The number slain was very great, 185,000 men, and Rabshakeh, it is likely, among the rest. When the besieged arose, early in the morning, behold they were all dead corpses, scarcely a living man among them. Some think the 76th Psalm was penned on this occasion, where we read that the stout-hearted were spoiled and slept their sleep, their last, their long sleep, v. 5. See how great, in power and might, the holy angels are, when one angel, in one night, could make so great a slaughter. See how weak the mightiest of men are before almighty God: who ever hardened himself against him and prospered? The pride and blasphemy of the king are punished by the destruction of his army. All these lives are sacrificed to God’s glory and Zion’s safety. The prophet shows that therefore God suffered this vast rendezvous to be made, that they might be gathered as sheaves into the floor,Mic 4:12; Mic 4:13.
II. The king of Assyria was hereby put into the utmost confusion. Ashamed to see himself, after all his proud boasts, thus defeated and disabled to pursue his conquests and secure what he had (for this, we may suppose, was the flower of his army), and continually afraid of falling under the like stroke himself, He departed, and went, and returned; the manner of the expression intimates the great disorder and distraction of mind he was in, v. 36. And it was not long before God cut him off too, by the hands of two of his own sons, v. 37. 1. Those that did it were very wicked, to kill their own father (whom they were bound to protect) and in the act of his devotion; monstrous villany! But, 2. God was righteous in it. Justly are the sons suffered to rebel against their father that begat them, when he was in rebellion against the God that made him. Those whose children are undutiful to them ought to consider whether they have not been so to their Father in heaven. The God of Israel had done enough to convince him that he was the only true God, whom therefore he ought to worship; yet he persists in his idolatry, and seeks to his false god for protection against a God of irresistible power. Justly is his blood mingled with his sacrifices, since he will not be convinced by such a plain and dear-bought demonstration of his folly in worshipping idols. His sons that murdered him were suffered to escape, and no pursuit was made after them, his subjects perhaps being weary of the government of so proud a man and thinking themselves well rid of him. And his sons would be looked upon as the more excusable in what they had done if it be true (as bishop Patrick suggested) that he was now vowing to sacrifice them to his god, so that it was for their own preservation that they sacrificed him. His successor was another son, Esarhaddon, who (as it should seem) did not aim, like his father, to enlarge his conquests, but rather to improve them; for he it was that first sent colonies of Assyrians to inhabit the country of Samaria, though it is mentioned before (ch. xvii. 24), as appears, Ezra iv. 2, where the Samaritans say it was Esarhaddon that brought them thither.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Assyrians Destroyed Commentary on 2Ki 19:35-37 AND 2Ch 32:20-22
Again the Chronicles account is more of a summary of the eventful conclusion to Sennacherib’s attempt to capture Jerusalem. It omits the details of the prayers of Isaiah and Hezekiah, saying they were the cause why the Lord sent an angel who cut off the mighty Assyrian army, including captains and leaders. It goes on to relate the return of Sennacherib to his own country where he perished at the hands of his sons, and concludes by stating that thus the Lord saved the king and people of Jerusalem from all their enemies.
The Kings account says that the angel of the Lord smote a hundred eighty-five thousand Assyrian soldiers in one night, so that few arose in the morning. All the mighty host were dead corpses, so few as Isaiah had foretold, “that a child may write them down” (Isa 10:19).
It is interesting that secular history admits this great catastrophe which befell the army of Sennacherib, although it does not attribute it to the mighty power of God. Secular history says that a fast moving plague destroyed the army and forced the Assyrian king to discontinue his conquests. Of course the Bible student knows what caused the plague and its stunning results.
Sennacherib returned to his homeland, the Chronicles account says, “with shame of face.” He lived on for a time in Nineveh, some chronologists think for many years longer, and finally was assassinated by two of his sons while he worshipped in the temple of his pagan gods. Sennacherib had a mighty demonstration of the awesome power of the God of Judah, whom he blasphemed. That God gave him space to repent, believe, and be saved, and he had not done so. He persisted in worshipping the pagan idols of his nation and suddenly perished in the act (Pro 29:1).
These events are a prophetic analogy of the end time things relative to Israel. She will find herself besieged and helpless, attempting to buy off her enemies and failing. At last she will admit that her hope is in the Lord and turn to Him. Then He will save her from the siege of Antichrist’s forces. Many prophecies foretell these events (see Zec 12:1-14).
Note these lessons from this passage: 1) In the end all the efforts of men will fail, only that done in the strength of the Lord will avail; 2) it matters not how apparent is the hand of God in affairs, some will never acknowledge it; 3) God’s people should always take their problems to Him in prayer, seeking an answer that brings Him honor and glory; 4) the Lord will soon judge those who scoff at His power and refuse Him; 5) The Lord will not forsake His people, Israel.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
C. THE DELIVERANCE OF JUDAH 19:3537
TRANSLATION
(35) And it came to pass in that night that the angel of the LORD went out and smote in the camp of Assyria 185,000 men; and they arose in the morning and behold they were all dead corpses. (36) So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went, and returned, and dwelt in Nineveh. (37) And it came to pass as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, smote him with the sword; and they fled to the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.
COMMENTS
On the very night following Isaiahs dramatic prediction, the divine stroke fell against the armies of Sennacherib. The angel of the Lord passed over the Assyrian camp and smote 185,000 of the enemy. When the survivors awoke in the morning they found their comrades absolutely dead, not sick or dying (2Ki. 19:35). Various explanations of this calamity have been put forward, the most popular of which is that a pestilence of some sort struck the Assyrian camp. But the narrative points rather to a sudden and silent death during sleep which would be very difficult to explain in purely naturalistic terms. One can only attribute the destruction of Sennacheribs army to a direct act of divine judgment.[620]
[620] In secular history no parallel account of this destruction has been found. Herodotus (II, 141), however, records a tradition that mice infested the Assyrian camp and caused Sennacherib speedily to withdraw. Since mice are notorious carriers of plague, the tradition in Herodotus may reflect the pagan, face-saving version of the humiliating Assyrian withdrawal.
His army decimated, Sennacherib could do nothing other than beat a hasty retreat to Nineveh (2Ki. 19:36). Some twenty years later as he was worshiping in the temple of Nisroch[621] he was assassinated by his own sons.[622] Thus was fulfilled the prediction of Isaiah (2Ki. 19:7) that Sennacherib would die by the sword in his own land. Having slain the king, the assassins fled to the land of Armenia (lit., Ararat). Esarhaddon, a younger son of Sennacherib, then assumed the throne (2Ki. 19:37).
[621] Nisroch is thought to be a Hebrew spelling for the southern Mesopotamian fire-god Nisku who is mentioned in Assyrian texts. See Gray, OTL, p. 695. Others identify Nisroch as Marduk whose image had been taken from Babylon to Ashur in 689 B.C.
[622] It is not certain whether the two assassins were brothers or father and son. Assyrian sources attest that Sennacherib died by assassination, but do not directly state that it was by the hands of his sons. See ANET, pp. 28889.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(35-37) THE CATASTROPHE. SENNACHERIBS RETREAT, AND HIS VIOLENT END.
(35) And it came to pass (in) that night.This definition of time is wanting in the parallel text; but it is implied by the phrase in the morning (Isa. 37:36; 2Ki. 19:35). The night intended can hardly be the one which followed the day when the prophecy was spoken (see 2Ki. 19:29). The expression in that night, may perhaps be compared with the prophetic in that day, and understood to. mean simply in that memorable night which was the occasion of this catastrophe. (Theuius sees in this clause an indication that the present section was derived from another source, probably from the one used by the chronicler in 2Ch. 32:20-23. Reuss thinks this confirmed by the fact that neither the prediction in 2Ki. 19:7, nor that of 2Ki. 19:21-34, speaks of so great and so immediate an overthrow.)
The angel of the Lord went out.The destroying angel, who smote the firstborn of the Egyptians (Exo. 12:12-13; Exo. 12:23), and smote Israel after Davids census (2Sa. 24:15-17). These passages undoubtedly favour the view that the Assyrian army was devastated by pestilence, as Josephus asserts. Others have suggested the agency of a simoom, a storm with lightning, an earthquake, &c. In any case a supernatural causation is involved not only in the immense number slain, and that in one night (Psa. 91:6), but in the coincidence of the event with the predictions of Isaiah, and with the crisis in the history of the true religion:
Vuolsi cos col dove si puote
Ci che si vuole; e pi non dimandare.
In the camp of the Assyrians.Where this was is not said. That it was not before Jerusalem appears from 2Ki. 19:32-33; and the well-known narrative of Herodotus (ii. 141) fixes Egypt, the land of plagues, as the scene of the catastrophe. Of the details of the catastrophe, which the Bible narrative is content to characterise as the act of God, the Assyrian monuments contain no record, because the issue of the campaign gave them nothing to boast of; but an Egyptian account, preserved by Herodotus, though full of fabulous circumstances, shows that in Egypt, as well as in Juda, it was recognised as a direct intervention of Divine power. The disaster did not break the power of the great king, who continued to reign for twenty years, and waged many other victorious wars. But none the less it must have been a very grave blow, the effects of which were felt throughout the empire, and permanently modified the imperial policy; for in the following year Chalda was again in revolt, and to the end of his reign Sennacherib never renewed his attack upon Judah (Robertson Smith).
And when they arose early.The few who were spared found, not sick and dying, but corpses, all around them. (Comp. Exo. 12:33 : They said, we be all dead men.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
SMITING AND FLIGHT OF THE ASSYRIANS SENNACHERIB’S DEATH, 2Ki 19:35-37.
That night Apparently the night that succeeded the day on which Isaiah sent his oracle to Hezekiah.
The angel of the Lord went out A supernatural minister of Jehovah’s will, as the one whom, in David’s time, Jehovah sent to scatter deadly pestilence upon Israel. 2Sa 24:15-16, notes. Josephus says, that in this case God sent upon the Assyrian army a pestilential plague, ( ,) and some interpreters assume that the angel of the Lord is a Hebraism for a destructive pestilence. It is very possible that the angel made use of plague or pestilence in his work of destruction, but there is no need of confounding the angel with the plague. There is no more improbability in Jehovah’s using superhuman beings than the Assyrian army to execute his judgments, and the numbers slain on this occasion clearly evidence a preternatural stroke of Divine vengeance.
Smote in the camp of the Assyrians “Where this overthrow took place, whether before Jerusalem, or at Libnah, or at some intervening point, has been disputed, and cannot be determined, in the absence of all data, monumental or historical. Throughout the sacred narrative it seems to be intentionally left uncertain whether Jerusalem was besieged at all whether Sennacherib, in person, ever came before it; whether his army was divided or united when the stroke befel them, and also what proportion of the host escaped. It is enough to know that one hundred and eighty-five thousand men perished in a single night.” Alexander.
When they arose When the survivors arose.
All dead corpses The one hundred and eighty-five thousand had perished while asleep. It is interesting in this connexion to note that this preternatural stroke against the Assyrian army is also recorded in legendary form in profane history. Herodotus relates (ii, 141): “As the two armies [Egyptian and Assyrian] lay opposite one another, there came in the night a multitude of field mice which devoured all the quivers and bowstrings of the enemy, [Assyrians,] and ate the thongs by which they managed their shields. Next morning they commenced their flight, and great multitudes fell, as they had no arms with which to defend themselves.”
36. Sennacherib departed For Jehovah had put his hook in his nose, (2Ki 19:28,) and led him back, like a strayed bull, to the place whence he had broken loose.
Returned, and dwelt at Nineveh “The murder of the disgraced Sennacherib ‘within fifty-five days’ of his return to Nineveh, seems to be an invention of the Alexandrian Jew who wrote the Book of Tobit, (i, 21.) The total destruction of the empire in consequence of the blow, is an exaggeration of Josephus, ( Antiquities, 2Ki 10:2 ; 2Ki 10:2,) rashly credited by some moderns. Sennacherib did not die till seventeen years after this misfortune; and the empire suffered so little that we find Esar-haddon, a few years later, in full possession of all the territory that any king before him had ever held, ruling from Babylonia to Egypt. Even Sennacherib himself was not prevented by his calamity from undertaking important wars during the latter part of his reign.” RAWLINSON, Ancient Monarchies, vol. ii, p. 169
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
YHWH Totally Unexpectedly Devastates The Assyrian Army Causing Sennacherib To Return Home Where Subsequently He Arranges For His Assassination ( 2Ki 19:35-37 ).
What happened now was totally unexpected, and deliberately so. YHWH wanted to make an instant and great impression on His people of what He could do on their behalf. The fact that there was no forewarning indicates both the genuineness of the previous prophecies (which if invented would hardly have failed to mention this stupendous event) and of the event itself. Certainly something happened of such a devastating nature that it shook the very heart of Israel, and bred in their unbelieving and foolish hearts the certainty that YHWH would never in the future allow Jerusalem to be destroyed.
Of course that was not what YHWH had intended. What He had wanted to do was awaken in them praise and gratitude which would result in future responsive hearts, and a desire from then on to do His will (then Jerusalem would indeed have been invulnerable). But it was human nature to think mechanically that if YHWH would do this once when they did not deserve it, He would always do it. It was a mistake that would be brought home to them by the destruction of Jerusalem. They were to learn by it that it was not Jerusalem that was invulnerable, but His true people, who happened at this time to be in Jerusalem.
For that very night something happened that struck at the heart of the Assyrian army. Speaking in heavenly terms ‘the Angel of YHWH went forth and smote a large part of the Assyrian army’. This may well have been because a plague of rats mentioned by Herodotus had infested the Assyrian camp bringing with them a disease that rapidly decimated the army. Or it may have been in some other way, such as a night attack by the Egyptian army (Sennacherib claimed victory, but then so no doubt did Tirhakah And certainly what happened was that Sennacherib withdrew, which would have been a strange way of celebrating a resounding victory). But what was certain was that when morning came and the Assyrians arose, there were corpses everywhere.
Coming on top of the news that he had received from Nineveh (2Ki 19:7) this was the final decider, and he upped camp and returned to Nineveh. But even there he could not escape the long arm of YHWH, for some considerable time later YHWH indirectly arranged for his assassination. He had received back his boasts to the full.
2Ki 19:35
“And it came about that night, that the angel of YHWH went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty and five thousand, and when men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.’
There is, of course, no external evidence of this, which is in fact what we would expect. Great kings never suffered disasters (compare how Egypt failed to record what happened at the Red Sea). Stalemates were victories, and genuine victories were lauded to the skies, but defeats, were discreetly forgotten. But what was written firmly in history (by interpreting what was written) was that Sennacherib did return to Nineveh, that Jerusalem was never taken, and that Hezekiah was never forced to submit in person. So something certainly happened. And it kept Sennacherib away for a long time.
There is a familiar ring to the story, for it was only Israel who boasted in their histories of victories gained totally by YHWH without their having any part in it. And that was partly because it was only to them that it happened. It brought no glory on them (which was the usual reason for recording history) but it did bring glory on YHWH (which was the prophets’ reason for recording history).
In this case what happened was that by morning a large part of the Assyrian army were dead. To Israel that could only have one explanation, it was due to the activity of the Angel of YHWH, the same Angel Who had once almost smitten Jerusalem (2Sa 24:15-17). Humanly speaking it might have been due to a rapidly infectious fatal disease (such as bacillary dysentery) or even a night attack by the Egyptian army. Or there may have been some other reason. But certainly 2Sa 24:15-17 does indicate that this was how plague was described, and interestingly Herodotus does record an occasion when the Assyrian army had to withdraw because of the effects of a plague of vermin, which could well have brought a deadly plague with them (compare the vermin connected with the plagues in Philistia in 1Sa 5:6; 1Sa 5:9; 1Sa 5:12; 1Sa 6:4-5), although Herodotus ascribed the withdrawal of which he spoke to the fact that the vermin gnawed most of their equipment (strictly, however, he indicates that the event he was speaking of happened in Egypt). He does, also, speak of an Egyptian tradition that the Egyptian army was saved from a momentous defeat in 701 BC by divine intervention.
The one hundred and eighty five eleph may indicate 185 military units (the inhabitants of Libnah may well have counted the number of military units revealed by their different standards), 185 captains (by repointing), or simply a very large number. (Only the Assyrians would theoretically have known how many dead bodies there were, and in their haste to dispose of them in the hot climate it is doubtful, in view of their large numbers, if anyone was counting).
2Ki 19:36
‘So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.’
The consequence of this was that Sennacherib immediately ‘departed and went and returned’ (the repetition emphasising his departure) to Nineveh (recorded in his annals) where he took up his dwelling for some time, no doubt while he sorted out affairs at home. Note the emphasis on his ‘returning’ to Nineveh. See for this 2Ki 19:7; 2Ki 19:33. In the view of Isaiah YHWH had dragged him there by his nose.
2Ki 19:37
‘And it came about, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer smote him with the sword, and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esar-haddon his son reigned instead of him.’
While this assassination undoubtedly occurred twenty years later (in 681 BC) it was an evidence not only of the long arm of YHWH but also of His control of history. ‘The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small’. The point is that YHWH had not fully finished with Sennacherib at Libnah. Having drawn him by his nose to Nineveh he finally (indirectly) arranged for his assassination. It was poetic justice. What Sennacherib had sought to do to Jerusalem was done to him.
Some of the detail is corroborated in Babylonian records where the assassination of Sennacherib, and the revenge gained by Esarhaddon his appointed heir is described. It is clear that this was an attempted coup in order to prevent Esarhaddon (if we believe Esarhaddon) succeeding to the throne. It was led by Arda-mulissi (Adrammelech). But the coup failed and the perpetrators had to flee to Urartu where they were overtaken by Esarhaddon’s vengeance.
Nisroch may well be a Hebrew representation of the Assyrian god Assur (sometimes Asarak), although others associate it with Nusku (nswk). If that be the case then the house of Nisroch would be the Temple of Nusku at Nineveh. This assumes a waw changed to a resh – with Nswk becoming Nsrk – whether deliberate or accidental. Although waw and resh are very similar in Hebrew, it is quite possible that the change were deliberate. Such changes were frequently made, sometimes in order to indicate contempt, and at others in order to bring out a specific idea. The names Adrammelech and Sharezer probably signify Arad-Melek and Nergal-shar-usur. (Arad and Nergal were two Assyrian deities). Note how Arad is also changed to Adra, and Nergal is dropped altogether. These changes are in order to demonstrate that these deities are unimportant and that their names do not matter. On the other hand a western Semitic name is a possibility for one of his sons and would not be unlikely, for Sennacherib was married to, among others, Naqi’a-Zakutu, a woman of western Semitic origin. But Shar-usur means ‘he has protected the king’ and we would expect it to be preceded by the name of a god. The late Greek writer Abydenus refers to them as Adramelus and Nergilus.
‘Ararat.’ That is Urartu as found in Assyrian inscriptions. It was in the neighbourhood of Lake Van in Armenia and was at this time enjoying a brief revival of strength after its battering by the Cimmerians. The sons clearly saw it as a safe refuge from the wrath of Esarhaddon, Sennacherib’s heir.
The non-mention of the assassination in Assyrian records is a typical indication of how bad news was ignored when it was just not palatable. Especially when he was apparently assassinated between the statues of his own ‘protective’ gods. But the inference is undoubtedly there when Esarhaddon says of his brothers ‘even drawing the sword within Nineveh against divine authority’, and as we have seen it was described in the Babylonian Chronicle (‘on the twentieth of the month of Tebet his son killed Sennacherib king of Assyria during a rebellion’) while Ashurbanipal does speak of ‘the very figures of the protective deities between which they had smashed Sennacherib, my own grandfather’).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
We have here not only the fulfillment of God’s promises in the salvation of his people; but the pouring out of his anger in the destruction of his enemies. Sennacherib himself, though saved, was only saved to have a more painful destruction. His own children shall be his executioners; and he shall die unpitied, even by those who from the ties of nature ought to have loved him. Some have thought that the 76th Psalm was composed upon this occasion. If so, it is strongly expressed in token of the divine love to his people. And what a blessed issue to the troubles of Hezekiah and his people. But, Reader! think what a glorious display will that be, and what a final issue to all the afflictions of the church of Jesus, when he shall come with all his holy angels to be glorified in his saints, and to punish with swift destruction the enemies of his church from his presence forever. All nations shall wail because of him, while his people shall shout with holy joy, crying out, Even so, come Lord Jesus. Rev 1:7 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2Ki 19:35 And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they [were] all dead corpses.
Ver. 35. That night. ] When the Assyrians were fitting themselves to assault Jerusalem, when in their conceits and hopes they had already devoured it, and were even fetching their blow at all the Jews at once, as if they had all had but one neck to cut off.
That the angel of the Lord.
Went out, and smote.
A hundred fourscore and five thousand.
And when they arose, &c.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
it came to pass. Compare 2Ki 37:36.
that night: i.e. the night of the prophecy when the promise was fulfilled. Compare “that day” (Luk 21:34. 1Th 5:4).
the Angel of the LORD: i.e. the destroying Angel. Compare 2Sa 24:16.
they: i.e. the king and his people.
dead corpses. Figure of speech Pleonasm, for emphasis.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
angel
(See Scofield “Heb 1:4”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
that night: Exo 12:29, Dan 5:30, 1Th 5:2, 1Th 5:3
the angel: Exo 12:29, Exo 12:30, 2Sa 24:16, 1Ch 21:12, 1Ch 21:16, 2Ch 32:21, 2Ch 32:22, Psa 35:5, Psa 35:6, Act 12:23
and smote: Isa 10:16-19, Isa 10:33, Isa 30:30-33, Isa 37:36, Hos 1:7
when they arose: Exo 12:30, Psa 76:5-7, Psa 76:10
Reciprocal: 1Sa 25:38 – the Lord 2Ki 19:7 – a blast 1Ch 21:14 – seventy Job 27:20 – a tempest Job 36:20 – cut Psa 9:16 – known Psa 34:7 – The angel Psa 48:5 – were Psa 91:6 – pestilence Psa 103:20 – that excel in strength Isa 10:25 – For yet Isa 10:26 – stir up Isa 17:14 – at eveningtide Nah 1:12 – Through
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Ki 19:35. And it came to pass that night, &c. Sometimes it was long before prophecies were accomplished, and promises performed, but here the word was no sooner spoken than the work was done. The night which immediately followed the sending of this message to Hezekiah, was the main body of the besieging army slain. Hezekiah had not force sufficient to sally out upon them, and attack their camp, nor would God destroy them by sword or bow; but he sent a destroying angel, in the dead of night, to make an assault upon them, which their sentinels, though ever so watchful, could neither discover nor resist: such an angel as slew the firstborn of Egypt. Josephus says, the angel slew them by inflicting a pestilential disease which caused death immediately. But his authority, says Vitringa, in matters of this kind, is of no great weight. It is my opinion, continues he, that in a dreadful storm, raised by this destroying angel, these men were killed by lightning; their bodies being burned within, while their outward garments were untouched. The number slain was prodigious, and Rab-shakeh, probably, among them. And when they rose early in the morning Namely, the few that were left alive; behold, they were all dead corpses Scarce a living man of their companions and fellow- soldiers remained. How great in power and might must the holy angels be, when one angel, in one night, could make so great a slaughter! And how weak are the mightiest men before the almighty God! Who ever hardened himself against him, and prospered? The pride and blasphemy of the king and his general are punished by the destruction of one hundred and eighty- five thousand men! O God, how terrible art thou in thy justice! All these lives are sacrificed to the glory of God and the safety of his people!