2 Kings 19:35 - Meaning and Application

Sometimes prophecies took a long time before they were fulfilled, and promises took a while to be kept. But here, as soon as the word was spoken, the work was done.

The army of Assyria was completely destroyed. That very night, right after this message was sent to Hezekiah, when the enemy had just set down before the city and was preparing, as we would say, to dig siege trenches, the main part of their army was struck down on the spot by an angel (2 Kings 19:35). Hezekiah did not have the strength to march out and attack their camp, and God did not choose to use sword or bow. Instead, he sent his angel, a destroying angel, in the dead of night to attack them in a way their guards could neither see nor stop. The Assyrian army did not fall by the sword of a great man or a weak man, that is, by no human hand at all, but by an angel, as Isaiah had said (Isaiah 31:8). This was the same kind of angel who killed the firstborn of Egypt.

Josephus says this was done through a deadly disease that brought instant death. The number killed was very large, 185,000 men, and probably Rabshakeh was among them. When the besieged people rose early in the morning, they saw that all of them were dead bodies, with hardly a living man left among them. Some think Psalm 76 was written for this event, where it says that the brave men were stripped of their weapons and fell asleep, their final and long sleep (2 Kings 19:5). See how great the power of the holy angels is, when one angel, in one night, could carry out such a slaughter. See how weak the strongest people are before almighty God. Who has ever hardened himself against him and succeeded?

The king’s pride and insults were answered by the destruction of his army. All those lives were given up for God’s glory and Zion’s safety. The prophet shows that God allowed this huge army to gather so they could be gathered like sheaves into the threshing floor (Micah 4:12-13).

The king of Assyria was also thrown into the deepest confusion. Ashamed to see that, after all his proud boasting, he had been defeated and was no longer able to continue his conquests or secure what he had gained, he went away in fear of suffering the same blow himself (2 Kings 19:36). The wording shows how upset and unsettled he was. Not long after that, God also cut him down by the hands of two of his own sons (2 Kings 19:37).

Those sons were very wicked, because they murdered their own father, who they should have protected, and they did it while he was worshiping. It was a terrible crime. Yet God was still right in allowing it. It is just for sons to turn against a father who rebels against the God who made him. Those whose children are disobedient should ask whether they have not been disobedient to their Father in heaven.

The God of Israel had already given him enough proof that he alone is the true God, the one he should worship. Yet the king kept worshiping idols and looked to a false god for protection against the God of unstoppable power. His blood was rightly mixed with his sacrifices, since he would not learn from such a clear and costly lesson about the folly of idol worship. His sons who killed him were allowed to escape, and no one pursued them. His subjects may have been tired of such a proud ruler and glad to be rid of him. His sons may also have seemed less guilty if it is true, as Bishop Patrick suggested, that he was then planning to sacrifice them to his god, so that they acted to save their own lives by killing him.

His successor was another son, Esarhaddon, who, as it seems, did not try, like his father, to expand the empire, but rather to strengthen what he had. He was the one who first sent Assyrian settlers to live in the land of Samaria, though that had been mentioned earlier as well (2 Kings 17:24), as appears in Ezra 4:2, where the Samaritans say it was Esarhaddon who brought them there.