Isaiah 37:29, commentary and pictures

Because Sennacherib raged and blasphemed against Jehovah the Holy One of Israel as if He were only a god made by hands, God would put His hook in his nose and His bridle in his lips to restrain and control him and turn him back by the way he came. To vindicate His own name He would defend Jerusalem to save it for His own sake and for David's sake, so the king of Assyria would not come into the city nor shoot an arrow there nor come before it with shield nor cast a mound against it. The turning back was fulfilled when Jehovah sent an angel who in one night cut off all the mighty men and leaders in the Assyrian camp, striking down 185,000 men where they lay. Sennacherib then returned with shame of face to his own land and was afterward slain with the sword in the house of his god by sons who came forth from his own body. The word was the answer to Hezekiah and Isaiah when they spread the taunting letter before the Lord and cried to heaven in prayer, showing that God is with the one who stands alone for right against a mighty army and that prayer and trust in Him bring swift and complete deliverance.

Context and Parallel Account

Isaiah 37:29 stands in Isaiah 37 to 39, which belongs to the first part of Isaiah, chapters 1 to 39. That first part gathers distinct single prophecies and historical accounts from Isaiah's active public work as God's messenger to rulers and people, given at different times and on different occasions and afterward brought together into one collection while remaining distinct and single. By contrast chapters 40 to 66 are wholly occupied with the future, announcing deliverance from Babylonian captivity under a named monarch and deliverance from sin and error through the Messiah.

The verse stands in Isaiah 36-39, a history that vividly portrays human frailty. Even the great and good King Hezekiah fails there to give God the glory for his healing. Instead he shows the earthly riches he has himself gathered to the Babylonian ambassadors, arousing their greed that afterward leads them to despoil the kingdom.

The chapter containing the verse parallels the nineteenth chapter of 2 Kings, being alike to it. The likeness holds with considerable verbal difference.

The verse belongs to the record of Sennacherib's campaign against Judah. That campaign described in Isaiah 37 came from the southwest. This is unlike the campaign in Isaiah 10, which came from the northeast and is identified with Sargon.

Judgment and Miraculous Deliverance

The promise was given when the king of Assyria came up and threatened the land in Hezekiah's reign, and after Hezekiah humbled himself and prayed God sent His word through the prophet that Assyria would be turned back by the way it came and wonderfully delivered His people from Assyrian power by His angel. The besieging army perished in its camp after Hezekiah prayed for the deliverance of Jerusalem.

The reason given is that Sennacherib's rage, tumult, defiance and blasphemy against Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, had come up into God's ears, for he had spoken of the God of Jerusalem as the gods of the peoples of the earth which are the work of men's hands. Therefore God would put His hook in his nose and His bridle in his lips, bringing the proud invading king under control and restraining him from his course and turning him back by the route by which he came. This restraint answered Assyria's rage and defiance by showing God's power and providence to protect those who trust in Him.

The turning back was to vindicate God's own name and cause, for He would defend Jerusalem to save it for His own sake and for David's sake. Sennacherib would not take Jerusalem, would not come into it nor shoot an arrow there nor come before it with shield nor cast a mound against it, but by the way that he came by the same way he would return. Even a powerful army had no power against God, and while Hezekiah, threatened and outnumbered, sought God's help, the Lord delivered Israel.

The fulfillment came when Jehovah sent an angel who cut off all the mighty men of valor and the leaders and captains in the camp of Assyria, striking down 185,000 men in a single night. The destruction was swift and complete, described as 185,000 Assyrians destroyed in twelve hours, so that the invading army lost 185,000 men in a single night and the besieging army perished in its camp. After Hezekiah spread the taunting, insulting letter before the Lord, God turned the invaders back by the way they came.

After the slaughter Sennacherib returned with shame of face to his own land, and afterward when he came into the house of his god those who came forth from his own body slew him there with the sword. The army was with the king at Libnah, not near Jerusalem, when the angel killed the 185,000. His return to his own land and death there do not fulfill the prophecy of Tophet prepared for the king in Isaiah 30:33.

Trust Prayer and Witness

Even a powerful army has no power against God, for He hears the defiance of the proud king and turns him back by the way he came, delivering the threatened and outnumbered who seek His help by striking down 185,000 soldiers. God is with the one who stands alone against wrong, and with God that one is a majority, as seen when the taunted and helpless king spread the taunting, insulting letter out before the Lord and the invaders lost 185,000 men in a single night. In the account of that prayer Jerusalem is the threatened city, and the answer that brings the raging, defiant invader under control and turns him back by the route he came shows that divine power and providence protect those who trust in Him, with one messenger enough to accomplish His purpose.

The turning back is the answer to the prayer and cry to heaven of Hezekiah and Isaiah against Assyria, who subdued their enemies through faith and the spiritual gifts given to the church. Christians who retain that faith and those gifts can follow their example, spreading the insult before the Lord as Hezekiah did with the letter. That answer proved that prayer brings swift and complete deliverance from enemies, destroying 185,000 Assyrians in twelve hours.

The deliverance was wrought by direct, evidently miraculous intervention to prevent glorying in human power and to leave God not without witness. The witness was borne especially to Assyria, the nation that rose to world power and influence after Egypt, declaring that He is God above all. Sennacherib had defied and blasphemed the Holy One of Israel and spoken of the God of Jerusalem as the gods of the peoples of the earth which are the work of men's hands, and therefore he would not come into Jerusalem, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a mound against it, but would return by the way he came, for God would defend the city to save it for His own sake and for David's sake. Jehovah sent an angel who cut off all the mighty men of valor and leaders and captains in the camp of Assyria, so that Sennacherib returned with shame of face to his own land and was there slain with the sword in the house of his god by those who came forth from his own body, making clear to Judah and all nations that there is a God in heaven mightier than the gods of the nations.

The victory and its trophies should have been constant reminders of the nothingness of man and the greatness of God, which is the very essence of the gospel of righteousness by faith. The exaltation of Hezekiah in the sight of all nations should have furnished opportunity for exalting the power and mercy of the King of heaven who wrought this marvel for Jerusalem's salvation. Because rage and defiance had been heard, God put His hook in the proud king's nose and His bridle in his lips to bring him under control and restrain him from his course, and that public humiliation by angelic intervention was a lesson of divine power that Nebuchadnezzar should have heeded.

The same stopping of a proud invader and turning him back applies beyond Assyria, as when Providence halted Cataneo's attack on the Waldenses. His army was stopped in a mountain pass with a dense fog, enabling the defenders to repel it. In that case God's protection worked through natural means rather than by an angel, thunderbolts, or an earthquake.