Isaiah 36

Sennacherib ruled the Assyrian Empire from the time his father, King Sargon II, died in 705 BC until two of his sons murdered him in 681 BC. He kept records of his campaigns against Judah and Israel, and some of them survive, confirming key elements of history in the Old Testament report. He confirms, for example, that he didn’t manage to get inside Jerusalem this time. He reports, instead, that he trapped King Hezekiah behind Jerusalem’s walls “like a bird in a cage.”

The content of Isaiah 36 and 37 is pulled from sections of 2 Kings, according to some scholars. Compare Isaiah 36:1 to 2 Kings 18:13. And compare verses 36:2-22 to 2 Kings 18:17-37. Hezekiah’s story in Isaiah 37-38 seems to come from 2 Kings 19-20. Some scholars say it’s the other way around: Isaiah wrote it, and the writer or editors of 2 Kings copied it and added it to the historical record. Some who said Isaiah borrowed it explain that he probably did it with the idea that the Jews would listen to this retold story sometime after their exile abroad—perhaps in Babylon or maybe back in their homeland. There, they would listen to a tale about how great things used to be when King Hezekiah was disobeying God, before the hammer came down in the form of an Assyrian invasion force.

Lachish was about 30 miles (48 km) southwest of Jerusalem, a walk of about a day and a half. Assyrian chiseled pictures of their attack on Lachish and their impaling of the people there. It has been on display in the British Museum.

This was apparently a place by the water where people came to wash their clothes.

Scholars debate what the three titles meant. They’re often translated: “palace administrator,” “secretary,” and “recorder.” Some associate “secretary” with a scribe in charge of recording official documents. “Recorder” might refer to a legal official, such as a minister of justice. Some scholars, however, say they see a connection to a similar Egyptian title that refers to an official in charge of communicating and reporting to the king and then to the people on behalf of the king, a bit like a press secretary today.

Yes, Hezekiah apparently thought Egypt would come. And they did, during the following siege of Jerusalem. But Assyrians drove them off. Isaiah had argued against making an alliance with Egypt, saying God opposed it (Isaiah 30:2). Hezekiah did it anyhow.

The Assyrian king was mistaken. Hezekiah tore down hilltop shrines and other worship centers forbidden by Israelite law. Moses had told the people during the exodus out of Egypt that once they settled in their new homeland, they should worship at only “one worship center for the entire nation of Israel” (Deuteronomy 12:5) That place became the Jerusalem Temple that King Solomon built.

More literally, they’ll eat their own “filth” and drink the “water for their feet.” The question is how best to express those words today. Would the officer have spoken politely, using the more delicate words? Or would he have matched his words to the energy and the spirit he expresses in verses 14-20. If so, he may have used words that would get us in even more trouble than the common slang words used here. “Excrement,” often used, seems a little on the light side of “filth.” And what are you gonna do with “water for their feet”? “Urine?” That word doesn’t feel wet enough.

A cistern was a storage pit to collect rainwater or water hauled from a spring or a stream. It was often chiseled out of stone and lined with waterproof plaster.

Assyrians planned to dismantle the nation of Judah and deport the people, to make sure the nation didn’t reconstitute itself and live to rebel another day. Assyrians did that earlier to the northern Jewish nation of Israel, in 721 BC. Babylonians also deported people. Assyrians and Babylonians both took the captives to their own part of the world so they could keep an eye on them.

Samaria, capital of the northern Jewish kingdom of Israel, fell to Assyria two decades earlier, in about 722 BC.