# Isaiah 36 📖: Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem [[📚 Explore the Bible Books]] [[-Isaiah Overview]] | [[Isaiah 35]] | [[Isaiah 37]] > [!info] Table of Contents > [[#📜 Scripture Text (NET)]] > [[#📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary]] > [[#🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights]] > [[#🧠 Chapter Summary]] > [[#✝️ Christ in This Chapter]] > [[#🔎 Key Principles / 🛟 Life Application]] > [[#💬 Discussion Questions]] > [[#✍️ Key Verses to Remember]] > [[#🔗 Related Passages/Cross Reference]] > [[#🙏 Devotional Reflection]] > [[#📂 Internal Notes]] ## 📜 Scripture Text (NET) (The NET Bible: New English Translation. Biblical Studies Press, 2005) ### Sennacherib Invades Judah [[#Verse 01.]] In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, King Sennacherib of Assyria marched up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. [[#Verse 02.]] The king of Assyria sent his chief adviser from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem, along with a large army. The chief adviser stood at the conduit of the upper pool that is located on the road to the field where they wash and dry cloth.  [[#Verse 03.]] Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went out to meet him. [[#Verse 04.]] The chief adviser said to them, “Tell Hezekiah: ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: “What is your source of confidence?  [[#Verse 05.]] Your claim to have a strategy and military strength is just empty talk. In whom are you trusting, that you would dare to rebel against me?  [[#Verse 06.]] Look, you must be trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed staff. If someone leans on it for support, it punctures his hand and wounds him. That is what Pharaoh king of Egypt does to all who trust in him!  [[#Verse 07.]] Perhaps you will tell me, ‘We are trusting in the Lord our God.’ But Hezekiah is the one who eliminated his high places and altars and then told the people of Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship at this altar.’  [[#Verse 08.]] Now make a deal with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you 2,000 horses, provided you can find enough riders for them. [[#Verse 09.]] Certainly you will not refuse one of my master’s minor officials and trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen.  [[#Verse 10.]] Furthermore it was by the command of the Lord that I marched up against this land to destroy it. The Lord told me, ‘March up against this land and destroy it!’”’” [[#Verse 11.]] Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the chief adviser, “Speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Don’t speak with us in the Judahite dialect in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”  [[#Verse 12.]] But the chief adviser said, “My master did not send me to speak these words only to your master and to you. His message is also for the men who sit on the wall, for they will eat their own excrement and drink their own urine along with you!” [[#Verse 13.]] The chief adviser then stood there and called out loudly in the Judahite dialect, “Listen to the message of the great king, the king of Assyria.  [[#Verse 14.]] This is what the king says: ‘Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you, for he is not able to rescue you!  [[#Verse 15.]] Don’t let Hezekiah talk you into trusting in the Lord by saying, “The Lord will certainly rescue us; this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.”  [[#Verse 16.]] Don’t listen to Hezekiah!’ For this is what the king of Assyria says, ‘Send me a token of your submission and surrender to me. Then each of you may eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,  [[#Verse 17.]] until I come and take you to a land just like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.  [[#Verse 18.]] Hezekiah is misleading you when he says, “The Lord will rescue us.” Have any of the gods of the nations rescued their lands from the power of the king of Assyria?  [[#Verse 19.]] Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Indeed, did any gods rescue Samaria from my power? [[#Verse 20.]] Who among all the gods of these lands have rescued their lands from my power? So how can the Lord rescue Jerusalem from my power?’”  [[#Verse 21.]] They were silent and did not respond, for the king had ordered, “Don’t respond to him.” [[#Verse 22.]] Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and reported to him what the chief adviser had said. ## 📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary ###### Overall. ###### Verse 01. ###### Verse 02. ###### Verse 03. ###### Verse 04. ###### Verse 05. ###### Verse 06. ###### Verse 07. ###### Verse 08. ###### Verse 09. ###### Verse 10. ###### Verse 11. ###### Verse 12. ###### Verse 13. ###### Verse 14. ###### Verse 15. ###### Verse 16. ###### Verse 17. ###### Verse 18. ###### Verse 19. ###### Verse 20. ###### Verse 21. ###### Verse 22. ## 🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights 1. Chapters 36-39 are almost identical to 2 Kings 18:13-20:19. 2. The fourteenth year of Hezekiah (36:1) was 701 BC. 3. Sennacherib's own annals claim he captured 46 fortified cities of Judah and shut Hezekiah up in Jerusalem like a bird in a cage. 4. Sennacherib's annals do not claim he captured Jerusalem. 5. Lachish (36:2) was Judah's second most important city. Sennacherib's palace reliefs of its siege are now in the British Museum. 6. Rabshakeh, the Assyrian official in the Hebrew text, is a title for a high official, not a personal name. 7. The Assyrian stood at the conduit of the upper pool (36:2), the same spot where Isaiah met Ahaz (7:3). 8. Judah's officials asked him to speak Aramaic (36:11), the diplomatic language of the day, but he spoke Hebrew so the people would hear. 9. He mocked Egypt as a splintered reed that pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it (36:6). 10. Eliakim is now over the palace, as Isaiah had foretold (22:20-22; 36:3). ## 🧠 Chapter Summary > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## ✝️ Christ in This Chapter Christ is the true King who answered the enemy's taunts with silence (36:21; Matthew 27:12-14). The Assyrians asked whose god could deliver (36:20), but Jesus defeated the powers that mocked Him (Colossians 2:15). ## 🔎 Key Principles / 🛟 Life Application > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## 💬 Discussion Questions 1. The Assyrian official tried to shake Judah's confidence in the Lord (36:4-7). What lies does the enemy use to shake our trust in God? 2. He claimed the Lord had sent him (36:10). How do we recognize half-truths dressed up as spiritual messages? 3. Hezekiah told the people not to answer the taunts (36:21). When is silence the wisest response to mockery? ## ✍️ Key Verses to Remember - 📖 verse 4: What is the basis of your confidence? - 📖 verse 7: The enemy mocks Judah's trust in the Lord. - 📖 verse 21: The people kept silent and did not answer, as the king had commanded. ## 🔗 Related Passages/Cross Reference - 🔗 [[2 Kings 18#Verse 17.|2 Kings 18:17-37]] - The parallel account. - 🔗 [[2 Chronicles 32#Verse 09.|2 Chronicles 32:9-19]] - Sennacherib's officials mock the Lord. - 🔗 [[Matthew 27#Verse 12.|Matthew 27:12-14]] - Jesus remains silent before His accusers. - 🔗 [[Colossians 02#Verse 13.|Colossians 2:13-15]] - Christ disarmed the rulers and authorities. - 🔗 [[Psalm 46#Verse 01.|Psalm 46:1-3]] - God is our refuge and strength. ## 🙏 Devotional Reflection 📝 SOAP: [[Isaiah 36 - SOAP|The Devil Hits Your Weak Spots]] ## 📂 Internal Notes