2 Kings 19:35-37

C. THE DELIVERANCE OF JUDAH 19:35-37

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 Isaiah's 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 (2 Kings 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 Sennacherib's 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 (2 Kings 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 (2 Kings 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 (2 Kings 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. 288-89.