Isaiah 37 · a question people ask
What happened in the camp of the Assyrians (37:36)?
The chapter tells it in one verse, 37:36, and gives no more than that verse says. It comes after the LORD's word that the king "will not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there" (37:33) and "For I will defend this city to save it" (37:35), and the one who acts is the LORD's angel (37:36). 2 Kings 19:35 tells it in almost the same words, and 2 Chronicles says, "The LORD sent an angel" (2 Chronicles 32:21). None of the three says how. Who the LORD's angel is, Judges 2 asks. After it, the king of Assyria "departed, went away, returned to Nineveh, and stayed there" (37:37), as the LORD had said: "He will return the way that he came" (37:34).
The verses
“That night, the LORD’s angel went out and struck one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.”
“The LORD sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty men of valor, the leaders, and captains in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. When he had come into the house of his god, those who came out of his own body killed him there with the sword.”
“The LORD’s angel came up from Gilgal to Bochim. He said, “I brought you out of Egypt, and have brought you to the land which I swore to give your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you.”