Bible Strands
Isaiah 37:18
Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all these countries and their lands.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Hezekiah addresses the LORD in prayer, cataloging the historical destruction wrought by Assyrian kings before pleading for deliverance from Sennacherib’s current siege.
The words — The verse opens with אָמְנָ֖ם ('a.me.Nam), meaning "truly," which confirms the factual basis of the prayer. It then uses הֶחֱרִיבוּ (he.che.Ri.vu), literally "they have made desolate," to describe the Assyrian kings' systematic ruin.
The thread — This pattern of Assyrian devastation and the subsequent exposure of false gods appears in 2 Kings 15:29, 2 Kings 16:9, and Nahum 2:11. These passages trace the same historical campaign and theological conclusion that human-made idols cannot withstand divine judgment.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition of historical reality before divine intervention, forcing the reader to acknowledge the scale of the threat to validate the subsequent plea for salvation. It requires the reader to ground prayer in factual assessment rather than wishful thinking.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations, and their countries,
Cross-references
- 2 Kings 15:29 In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came and captured Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, including all the land of Naphtali, and he took the people as captives to Assyria.
- Nahum 2:11 Where is the lions’ lair or the feeding ground of the young lions, where the lion and lioness prowled with their cubs, with nothing to frighten them away?
- 2 Kings 16:9 So the king of Assyria responded to him, marched up to Damascus, and captured it. He took its people to Kir as captives and put Rezin to death.
- 2 Kings 17:6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried away the Israelites to Assyria, where he settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes.
- 2 Kings 17:24 Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took possession of Samaria and lived in its towns.
- 1 Chronicles 5:26 So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria (that is, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria) to take the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh into exile. And he brought them to Halah, Habor, Hara, and the river of Gozan, where they remain to this day.