Discovery BoxIsaiah 37:22-23 
Context37:22 this is what the Lord says about him: 1
“The virgin daughter Zion 2
despises you – she makes fun of you;
daughter Jerusalem
shakes her head after you. 3
37:23 Whom have you taunted and hurled insults at?
At whom have you shouted
and looked so arrogantly? 4
At the Holy One of Israel! 5
Isaiah 37:28-29
Context37:28 I know where you live
and everything you do
and how you rage against me. 6
37:29 Because you rage against me
and the uproar you create has reached my ears, 7
I will put my hook in your nose, 8
and my bridle between your lips,
and I will lead you back
the way you came.”
1 tn Heb “this is the word which the Lord has spoken about him.”
2 sn Zion (Jerusalem) is pictured here as a young, vulnerable daughter whose purity is being threatened by the would-be Assyrian rapist. The personification hints at the reality which the young girls of the city would face if the Assyrians conquer it.
3 sn Shaking the head was a mocking gesture of derision.
4 tn Heb “and lifted your eyes on high?” Cf. NIV “lifted your eyes in pride”; NRSV “haughtily lifted your eyes.”
5 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
6 tc Heb “your going out and your coming in and how you have raged against me.” Several scholars have suggested that this line is probably dittographic (note the beginning of the next line). However, most English translations include the statement in question at the end of v. 28 and the beginning of v. 29. Interestingly, the LXX does not have this clause at the end of v. 28 and the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa does not have it at the beginning of v. 29. In light of this ambiguous manuscript evidence, it appears best to retain the clause in both verses.
7 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).
8 sn The word-picture has a parallel in Assyrian sculpture. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 238.
