Replies

From: 2 Kings 19:9b-11, 14-21, 31-35a, 36

Further threats against Jerusalem

[9b] [Sennacherib the king] sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying, [10]
“Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God on whom
you rely deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand
of the king of Assyria. [11] Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria
have done to all lands, destroying them utterly. And shall you be delivered?

A further oracle

[14] Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it;
and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.
[15] And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said: “O LORD the God of Isra-
el, who art enthroned above the cherubim, thou art the God, thou alone, of all the
kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth. [16] Incline thy ear, O
LORD, and hear; open thy eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear the words of Sen-
nacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. [17] Of a truth, O LORD,
the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands, [18] and have
cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands,
wood and stone; therefore they were destroyed. [19] So now, O LORD our God,
save us, I beseech thee, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may
know that thou, O LORD, art God alone.”

[20] Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the
LORD, the God of Israel: Your prayer to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria
I have heard. [21] This is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning him:
“She despises you, she scorns you –
the virgin daughter of Zion;
she wags her head behind you –
the daughter of Jerusalem.

[31] for out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band
of survivors. The zeal of the LORD will do this.

[32] “Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not
come into this city or shoot an arrow there, or come before it with a shield or cast
up a siege mound against it. [33] By the way that he came, by the same he shall
return, and he shall not come into this city, says the LORD. [34] For I will defend
this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”

Death of the Assyrian king

[35a] And that night the angel of the LORD went forth, and slew a hundred and
eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. [36] Then Sennacherib king
of Assyria departed, and went home, and dwelt at Nineveh.

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Commentary:

19:8-9. The final part of the prophet’s oracle (cf. 19:7) is fulfilled to the letter. God
uses the king of Ethiopia to force Sennacherib to shelve his plans to take Jerusa-
lem.

19:9-13. The king of Assyria not only does not change his plans but he is dismis-
sive of the God who protects Hezekiah; he puts him on a par with the gods of the
other nations that the Assyrians have defeated and forced into submission. This
is the theme which runs right through this account: there is no God like the God
of Israel, the one true God. Sennacherib’s words reflect the commonly held view
at the time that each nation has a god-protector; but they also show that the As-
syrian king, relying on the force of arms, thought himself superior to all those
gods. His plan to take Jerusalem is going to encounter the living and true God.
So, the biblical text goes on, in the words of Hezekiah and Isaiah, to give further
teaching about the unicity of God and about his plan of salvation.

19:14-34. In a significant gesture which implies faith in the presence of God in
the temple, Hezekiah spreads out the Assyrian letter for the Lord to read. In his
prayer the king explains why it is that other nations were conquered (vv. 17-18),
and he asks God to show himself to be the only God there is (v. 19): “There is
only one God: ‘The Christian faith confesses that God is one in nature, sub-
stance and essence’ (”Roman Catechism:, 1,2,2)” (”Catechism of the Catholic
Church”, 200).

The prophet’s oracle also clear that the God of Israel is the only God, because
everything that happen is in line with his designs, even the Assyrian victories (vv.
25-26), and because the Lord knows all the doings of men (v. 27). God has deci-
ded to save Jerusalem as a “remnant” of Israel (vv. 29-31), in keeping with his
promise to David (v. 34): “Faced with God’s fascinating and mysterious presence,
man discovers his own insignificance. [...] Before the glory of the thrice-holy God,
Isaiah cries out: ‘Woe is me! I am lost; for l am a man of unclean lips’ (Is 6:5).
The apostle John says likewise: ‘We shall reassure our hearts before him when-
ever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows
everything’ (1 Jn 3:19-20)” (”Catechism of the Catholic Church”, 208).

19:35-37. The disaster that befell the Assyrian army was probably some kind of
pestilence. On the angel of the Lord, cf. the note on 2 Samuel 24:1-25. The sec-
ond part of Isaiah’s oracle is now fulfilled (cf. 19:7), and it is made clear that the
god whom Sennacherib worships has no power to save him. Sennacherib’s death
occurred in 681 BC; an Assyrian monolith dedicated to King Esarhaddon records
his assassination by his sons.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.