37:29 Because you rage against me
and the uproar you create has reached my ears, 3
I will put my hook in your nose, 4
and my bridle between your lips,
and I will lead you back
the way you came.”
37:36 The Lord’s messenger 5 went out and killed 185,000 troops 6 in the Assyrian camp. When they 7 got up early the next morning, there were all the corpses! 8 37:37 So King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and went on his way. He went home and stayed in Nineveh. 9 37:38 One day, 10 as he was worshiping 11 in the temple of his god Nisroch, 12 his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword. 13 They ran away to the land of Ararat; his son Esarhaddon replaced him as king.
1 tn Heb “I will put in him a spirit.” The precise sense of רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”) is uncertain in this context. It may refer to a spiritual being who will take control of his mind (see 1 Kgs 22:19), or it could refer to a disposition of concern and fear. In either case the Lord’s sovereignty over the king is apparent.
2 tn Heb “cause him to fall” (so KJV, ASV, NAB), that is, “kill him.”
3 tc Heb “and your complacency comes up into my ears.” The parallelism is improved if שַׁאֲנַנְךָ (sha’anankha, “your complacency”) is emended to שְׁאוֹנְךָ (shÿ’onÿkha, “your uproar”). See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 237-38. However, the LXX seems to support the MT and Sennacherib’s cavalier dismissal of Yahweh depicts an arrogant complacency (J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 1:658, n. 10).
4 sn The word-picture has a parallel in Assyrian sculpture. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 238.
5 tn Traditionally, “the angel of the Lord” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
6 tn The word “troops” is supplied in the translation for smoothness and clarity.
7 tn This refers to the Israelites and/or the rest of the Assyrian army.
8 tn Heb “look, all of them were dead bodies”; NLT “they found corpses everywhere.”
9 tn Heb “and Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went and returned and lived in Nineveh.”
10 sn The assassination of King Sennacherib probably took place in 681
11 tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.
12 sn No such Mesopotamian god is presently known. Perhaps the name Nisroch is a corruption of Nusku.
13 sn Extra-biblical sources also mention the assassination of Sennacherib, though they refer to only one assassin. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 239-40.