For My Own Sake

Isaiah 37 (parallel to 2 Kings 19) shows Hezekiah responding as Ahaz never did. Hearing the blasphemy, he "tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into Yahweh's house." He asked Isaiah to "lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left." God's reply was immediate: "Don't be afraid of the words that you have heard."

Sennacherib's second message was a letter listing conquered nations whose gods had failed. Hezekiah "spread it before Yahweh" and prayed one of the great prayers of the Old Testament. He begins with God's identity: "Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, who is enthroned among the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone." He admits the facts, that Assyria had destroyed nations and burned their gods, "for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands." His request aims at God's glory: "save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are Yahweh, even you only."

God's answer through Isaiah is a taunt song in which "The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you." Sennacherib boasted of his achievements, but God replies that he had planned it all "long ago." Assyria was only a tool in God's hand, and God would put "my hook in your nose" and turn him back. God gave a sign of three years of harvest and promised, "I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake, and for my servant David's sake." That night Yahweh's angel struck the Assyrian camp, and Sennacherib returned to Nineveh, where he later died. The Assyrian records themselves never claim to have taken Jerusalem.