Then the angel of the LORD went outThe "angel of the LORD" is often seen as a divine messenger or a manifestation of God's presence and power. In the Old Testament, this figure sometimes appears as a pre-incarnate Christ, acting with divine authority. The phrase indicates a direct intervention by God in human affairs, emphasizing His sovereignty and ability to deliver His people. This event occurs during the reign of King Hezekiah of Judah, who had prayed for deliverance from the Assyrian threat.
and struck down 185,000 men
The striking down of 185,000 Assyrian soldiers is a demonstration of God's power and judgment. This miraculous event underscores the futility of human arrogance against divine will. Historically, the Assyrian army was a formidable force, known for its military prowess and brutality. The sudden destruction of such a large number of troops would have been a significant blow to Assyrian morale and power. This act of divine intervention is reminiscent of other biblical events where God delivers His people, such as the plagues in Egypt.
in the camp of the Assyrians.
The Assyrian camp was likely located near Jerusalem, as they were besieging the city. Assyria, under King Sennacherib, was expanding its empire and had already conquered many surrounding nations. The Assyrian threat was real and imminent, making this divine intervention crucial for the survival of Judah. Archaeological evidence, such as the Taylor Prism, records Sennacherib's campaign in Judah, though it omits this defeat, highlighting the selective nature of ancient records.
When the people got up the next morning,
The phrase suggests a normal routine disrupted by an extraordinary event. The people of Jerusalem, likely expecting another day of siege, instead find themselves delivered. This timing emphasizes the suddenness and completeness of God's deliverance, occurring overnight without human intervention.
there were all the dead bodies!
The sight of the dead bodies serves as a tangible proof of God's intervention and judgment. It fulfills the prophecy given to Hezekiah that God would defend the city and save it for His own sake and for the sake of David, His servant. This event is a powerful reminder of God's faithfulness to His covenant promises and His ability to protect His people against overwhelming odds. The destruction of the Assyrian army without a battle also prefigures the ultimate victory of Christ over sin and death, achieved not through human means but through divine power.
Persons / Places / Events
1.
The Angel of the LORDA divine messenger often associated with God's direct intervention. In this context, the angel acts as an agent of God's judgment against the Assyrian army.
2.
The AssyriansA powerful empire known for its military might and conquests. They were besieging Jerusalem under King Sennacherib.
3.
JerusalemThe capital city of Judah, under threat from the Assyrian army. It is the focal point of God's deliverance in this account.
4.
King HezekiahThe king of Judah who sought God's help through prayer and the prophet Isaiah when faced with the Assyrian threat.
5.
Prophet IsaiahA major prophet in Judah who conveyed God's messages, including the promise of deliverance from the Assyrians.
Teaching Points
God's Sovereignty and PowerThis passage demonstrates God's supreme power over nations and armies. No earthly power can withstand His will.
Divine InterventionGod intervenes in the lives of His people, often in unexpected and miraculous ways. Trust in His timing and methods.
The Role of PrayerHezekiah's prayer and reliance on God were pivotal. Prayer is a powerful tool for believers facing insurmountable challenges.
The Reality of Spiritual WarfareThe unseen spiritual realm is active, and God's angels are involved in the affairs of the world, often in ways we cannot see.
Faith in God's PromisesGod's promises, as delivered through His prophets, are reliable. Believers can have confidence in His word.
Bible Study Questions and Answers
1.What is the meaning of Isaiah 37:36?
2.How does Isaiah 37:36 demonstrate God's power over earthly armies and threats?
3.What can we learn about God's protection from Isaiah 37:36's "angel of the LORD"?
4.How does Isaiah 37:36 connect with other instances of divine intervention in Scripture?
5.How can believers today trust God in seemingly insurmountable situations like in Isaiah 37?
6.What practical steps can we take to rely on God's deliverance in our lives?
7.How does Isaiah 37:36 demonstrate God's power and intervention in human history?
8.What historical evidence supports the event described in Isaiah 37:36?
9.How does Isaiah 37:36 align with the overall theme of divine justice in the Bible?
10.What are the top 10 Lessons from Isaiah 37?
11.How can Isaiah 37:36 claim that an angel killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers overnight without any verifiable historical or archaeological evidence?
12.Why don’t Assyrian records mention this massive defeat described in 2 Kings 19:35?
13.If Hezekiah’s faith in Isaiah 37 supposedly led to Jerusalem’s deliverance, how does this align with other biblical passages where faith did not prevent disasters for Israel?
14.Why do Isaiah 37:33–35 and parallel biblical accounts (e.g., 2 Kings 19) differ in describing Sennacherib’s retreat and the exact nature of the Assyrian defeat?What Does Isaiah 37:36 Mean
Then the angel of the LORD went out- Scripture presents the “angel of the LORD” as a personal manifestation of God’s saving power (Exodus 14:19;Psalm 34:7).
- His “going out” shows God taking the initiative; Judah’s salvation does not hinge on human negotiation but on divine action (2 Kings 19:35).
- The account confirms that the Lord needs no earthly army to defend His people, just as He required none at the Red Sea (Exodus 14:13-14).
and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians- The number is stated plainly; we accept it as literal, underscoring the magnitude of God’s intervention (2 Chronicles 32:21).
- The Assyrians, renowned for brutality, meet the justice declared inIsaiah 10:12: “I will punish the fruit of the king of Assyria’s arrogant heart.”
- God’s people witness that “the LORD of Hosts is with us” (Psalm 46:7-9), turning a hopeless siege into sudden victory.
When the people got up the next morning- God often works “while it is still dark” so His people awaken to finished deliverance (Psalm 30:5;Lamentations 3:22-23).
- Judah had spent the night in fear and prayer (Isaiah 37:14-20); dawn reveals that the battle truly belonged to the Lord (1 Samuel 17:47).
- The timing reminds us of Passover night, when judgment fell on Egypt while Israel rested in faith (Exodus 12:29-30).
there were all the dead bodies!- The stark sight silences any doubt: the Lord has decisively broken Assyria’s pride (Isaiah 37:37-38;Psalm 76:5-10).
- The phrase conveys both shock and relief—Judah is spared without lifting a sword, fulfillingIsaiah 31:5, “Like birds hovering, so will the LORD of Hosts shield Jerusalem.”
- God’s judgment serves as warning to every empire that exalts itself against Him (Daniel 4:37) and as comfort to believers facing overwhelming odds (Romans 8:31).
summaryIsaiah 37:36 records a literal, historical act of God: the angel of the LORD single-handedly destroys the Assyrian horde, proving His supremacy, defending His covenant people, and turning a night of terror into a morning of triumphant awe. The verse calls us to trust the Lord’s power, rest in His timing, and remember that no enemy can stand against the One who fights for His own.
(36)
Then the angel of the Lord.--The words do not exclude--rather, as interpreted by
1Chronicles 21:14, they imply--the action of some form of epidemic disease, dysentery or the plague, such as has not seldom turned the fortunes of a campaign, spreading, it may be, for some days, and then, aggravated by atmospheric conditions, such as the thunderstorm implied in
Isaiah 29:6;
Isaiah 30:27-30, culminating in one night of horror. History, as written from the modern stand-point, would dwell on the details of the pestilence. To Isaiah, who had learnt to see in the winds the messengers of God (
Psalm 104:4), it was nothing else than the "angel of the Lord." So he would have said of the wreck of the Armada, "
Afflavit Deus et dissipantur inimici"or of Napoleon's retreat from Moscow, "He sendeth forth his ice like morsels: who is able to abide his frost" (
Psalm 147:17). The Assyrian records, as might be expected, make no mention of the catastrophe, but a singular parallel is presented by the account which Herodotus gives (ii. 141), on the authority of the Egyptian priests, of the destruction of Sennacherib's army when he invaded Egypt, then under the rule of Sethon, a priest of Ptha or Hephaestos. The priest-king prayed to his gods, and the Assyrian army, then encamped before Pelusium, were attacked by myriads of field-mice, who gnawed the straps of quivers, bows, and shields, and so made all their weapons useless, and led to their taking flight. Therefore, the historian adds, there stood a statue of Sethon in the Temple of Hephaestos at Memphis, with a mouse in one hand and with the inscription, "Whosoever looks at me let him fear the gods." Some writers (
e.g.,Ewald and Canon Rawlinson) have been led by this to the conclusion that the pestilence fell on Sennacherib's army at Pelusium, and not at Jerusalem. It may be questioned, however, whether, even admitting that the narrative in its present form may be later than the exile, the probabilities are not in favour of the Biblical record, compiled as it was by writers who had documents and inherited traditions, rather than of the travellers' tales which the vergers of Egyptian temples told to the good Herodotus.
In the camp of the Assyrians.--Josephus (Bell. Jud.,v. 7, 2) names a site in the outskirts of Jerusalem which in his time still bore this name. The narrative of Isaiah leaves room for a considerable interval between his prophecy and the dread work of the destroyer (2Kings 19:35). "In that night" does not necessarily imply immediate sequence, the demonstrative adjective being used, like the Latiniste,orille,for "that memorable night." . . .
Verse 36. -
Then the angel of the Lord went forth. The parallel passage of Kings (
2 Kings 19:35) has, "It came to pass
that night, that the angel of the Lord went out." The word of Isaiah had its accomplishment within a few hours. On the camp of the Assyrians, wherever it was, whether at Libnah, or at Pelusium (Herod., 2:141), or between the two, in the dead of night, the destroying angel swooped down, and silently, without disturbance, took the lives of a hundred and eighty-five thousand' men. The camp was no doubt that in which Sennacherib commanded. It is contrary to the whole tenor of the Assyrian inscriptions to imagine that a mere
corps d'armee, detached to threaten, not to besiege, Jerusalem, could have been one-half, or one-quarter, so numerous. It was Sennacherib's host, not the Tartan's, that was visited. So the Egyptian tradition; so ver. 37, by implication. That in later times the Jews should have transferred the scene of the slaughter to the vicinity of their own capital, as Josephus does ('Ant. Jud.,' 10:2. § 5), is not surprising, especially as the Egyptians claimed the glory of the discomfiture for their own gods, and the completion of the victory for their own soldiers. The nature of the destruction is not, perhaps, very important, if it be allowed to have been supernatural; but the "simoom" of Prideaux and Milman, the "storm" of Vitringa and Stanley, the "nocturnal attack by Tirhakah" of Usher, Preiss, and Michaelis, and the "pestilence" of most other commentators, seem to be alike precluded by the terms of the narrative, which imply the silent death in one night of a hundred and eighty-five thousand persons by what English juries call "the visitation of God." The nearest parallel which Holy Scripture offers is the destruction of the firstborn in Egypt; but that was not, as this, without disturbance (see
Exodus 12:30). There a "great cry" broke the silence of the night; here it was not till morning, when men woke from their peaceful slumbers, that the discovery was made that "they were all dead corpses."
Parallel Commentaries ...
Hebrew
Then the angelמַלְאַ֣ךְ(mal·’aḵ)Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 4397:A messenger, of God, an angelof the LORDיְהוָ֗ה(Yah·weh)Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3068:LORD -- the proper name of the God of Israelwent outוַיֵּצֵ֣א ׀(way·yê·ṣê)Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 3318:To go, bring, out, direct and proximand struck downוַיַּכֶּה֙(way·yak·keh)Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 5221:To strike185,000 menמֵאָ֛ה(mê·’āh)Number - feminine singular
Strong's 3967:A hundredin the campבְּמַחֲנֵ֣ה(bə·ma·ḥă·nêh)Preposition-b | Noun - common singular construct
Strong's 4264:An encampment, an armyof the Assyrians.אַשּׁ֔וּר(’aš·šūr)Noun - proper - feminine singular
Strong's 804:AshshurWhen the people got upוַיַּשְׁכִּ֣ימוּ(way·yaš·kî·mū)Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 7925:To load up, to start early in the morningthe next morning,בַבֹּ֔קֶר(ḇab·bō·qer)Preposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 1242:Dawn, morningthereוְהִנֵּ֥ה(wə·hin·nêh)Conjunctive waw | Interjection
Strong's 2009:Lo! behold!were allכֻלָּ֖ם(ḵul·lām)Noun - masculine singular construct | third person masculine plural
Strong's 3605:The whole, all, any, everythe deadמֵתִֽים׃(mê·ṯîm)Verb - Qal - Participle - masculine plural
Strong's 4191:To die, to killbodies!פְּגָרִ֥ים(pə·ḡā·rîm)Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 6297:A carcase, an idolatrous image
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OT Prophets: Isaiah 37:36 The angel of Yahweh went out (Isa Isi Is) 
