The Great Isaiah Scroll, the best preserved of the biblical scrolls found at Qumran from the second century BC, contains all the verses in this chapter.
The parashah sections listed here are based on the Aleppo Codex.[3] Isaiah 37 is a part of the Narrative (Isaiah 36–39). {P}: open parashah; {S}: closed parashah.
The inscription of 'Jerusalem' and 'Hezekiah of Judah' on the prism of Sennacherib's Annals
Verse 2
Then he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.[4]
Verse 3
This is the message which he told them to give to Isaiah:
"Today is a day of suffering; we are being punished and are in disgrace.
We are like a woman who is ready to give birth, but is too weak to do it."[5]
6And Isaiah said to them, "Thus you shall say to your master, 'Thus says the Lord: "Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. 7 Surely I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land."'"[6]
The promise in verse 7 about 'the king of Assyria' is taken up in verses 36–38 containing the account of its fulfillment.[7]
Then the angel of the Lord went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses—all dead.[8]
Epilogue
Verse 38
And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Armenia: and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.[9]
According to Assyrian records, Sennacherib was assassinated in 681 BC, twenty years after the 701 BC invasion of Judah.[10]