Isaiah 37 · Verse 36

Isaiah 37:36

Then the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
Isaiah 37:36, King James Version

Isaiah 37:36 in other translations

BSBThen the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!
WEBThen the LORD’s angel went out and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
ASVAnd the angel of Jehovah went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand; and when men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
YLTAnd a messenger of Jehovah goeth out, and smiteth in the camp of Asshur a hundred and eighty and five thousand; and men rise early in the morning, and lo, all of them are dead corpses.
DARBYAnd an angel of Jehovah went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand. And when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead bodies.
BBEAnd the angel of the Lord went out and put to death in the army of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand men: and when the people got up early in the morning, there was nothing to be seen but dead bodies.
WebsterThen the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

What does Isaiah 37:36 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
36. Some attribute the destruction to the agency of the plague (see on Is 33:24), which may have caused Hezekiah's sickness, narrated immediately after; but Is 33:1, 4, proves that the Jews spoiled the corpses, which they would not have dared to do, had there been on them infection of a plague. The secondary agency seems, from Is 29:6; 30:30, to have been a storm of hail, thunder, and lightning (compare Ex 9:22-25). The simoon belongs rather to Africa and Arabia than Palestine, and ordinarily could not produce such a destructive effect. Some few of the army, as 2Ch 32:21 seems to imply, survived and accompanied Sennacherib home. Herodotus (2.141) gives an account confirming Scripture in so far as the sudden discomfiture of the Assyrian army is concerned. The Egyptian priests told him that Sennacherib was forced to retreat from Pelusium owing to a multitude of field mice, sent by one of their gods, having gnawed the Assyrians' bow-strings and shield-straps. Compare the language (Is 37:33), "He shall not shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields," which the Egyptians corrupted into their version of the story. Sennacherib was as the time with a part of his army, not at Jerusalem, but on the Egyptian frontier, southwest of Palestine. The sudden destruction of the host near Jerusalem, a considerable part of his whole army, as well as the advance of the Ethiopian Tirhakah, induced him to retreat, which the Egyptians accounted for in a way honoring to their own gods. The mouse was the Egyptian emblem of destruction. The Greek Apollo was called Sminthian, from a Cretan word for "a mouse," as a tutelary god of agriculture, he was represented with one foot upon a mouse, since field mice hurt corn. The Assyrian inscriptions, of course, suppress their own defeat, but nowhere boast of having taken Jerusalem; and the only reason to be given for Sennacherib not having, amidst his many subsequent expeditions recorded in the monuments, returned to Judah, is the terrible calamity he had sustained there, which convinced him that Hezekiah was under the divine protection. Rawlinson says, In Sennacherib's account of his wars with Hezekiah, inscribed with cuneiform characters in the hall of the palace of Koyunjik, built by him (a hundred forty feet long by a hundred twenty broad), wherein even the Jewish physiognomy of the captives is portrayed, there occurs a remarkable passage; after his mentioning his taking two hundred thousand captive Jews, he adds, "Then I prayed unto God"; the only instance of an inscription wherein the name of God occurs without a heathen adjunct. The forty-sixth Psalm probably commemorates Judah's deliverance. It occurred in one "night," according to 2Ki 19:35, with which Isaiah's words, "when they arose early in the morning," &c., are in undesigned coincidence. they ... they--"the Jews ... the Assyrians."

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 36 Then the angel - Before "the angel, "the other copy, 2Kgs 19:35, adds "it came to pass the same night, that " - The Prophet Hosea, Hos 1:7, has given a plain prediction of the miraculous deliverance of the kingdom of Judah: - "And to the house of Judah I will be tenderly merciful: And I will save them by Jehovah their God. And I will not save them by the bow; Nor by sword, nor by battle; By horses, nor by horsemen." - L.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Isaiah 37:36 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

וַיֵּצֵ֣א\׀vai.ye.Tze'and he went outH3318
מַלְאַ֣ךְmal.'Akh[the] angel ofH4397
יְהוָ֗הYah.wehYahwehH3068
וַיַּכֶּה֙vai.ya.Kehand he struck downH5221
בְּמַחֲנֵ֣הbe.ma.cha.Nehin [the] camp ofH4264
אַשּׁ֔וּר'a.ShurAssyriaH804
מֵאָ֛הme.'Ahone hundredH3967
וּשְׁמֹנִ֥יםu.she.mo.Nimand eightyH8084
וַחֲמִשָּׁ֖הva.cha.mi.Shahand fiveH2568
אָ֑לֶף'A.lefthousandH505
וַיַּשְׁכִּ֣ימוּvai.yash.Ki.muand they rose earlyH7925
בַבֹּ֔קֶרva.Bo.kerin the morningH1242
וְהִנֵּ֥הve.hi.Nehand there!H2009
כֻלָּ֖םkhu.Lamall of themH3605
פְּגָרִ֥יםpe.ga.Rim[were] corpsesH6297
מֵתִֽים\׃me.TimdeadH4191

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Isaiah 37:36

  • Isaiah 10:12

    Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.

  • 2 Kings 19:35

    And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

  • 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3

    For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

  • Isaiah 31:8

    Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a mighty man; and the sword, not of a mean man, shall devour him: but he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be discomfited.

  • 2 Samuel 24:16

    And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now thine hand. And the angel of the Lord was by the threshingplace of Araunah the Jebusite.

  • Isaiah 10:33-34

    Behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror: and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled. And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.

  • Acts 12:23

    And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.

  • Isaiah 33:10-12

    Now will I rise, saith the Lord; now will I be exalted; now will I lift up myself. Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble: your breath, as fire, shall devour you. And the people shall be as the burnings of lime: as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire.

  • Psalms 35:5-6

    Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angel of the Lord chase them. Let their way be dark and slippery: and let the angel of the Lord persecute them.

  • Job 24:24

    They are exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all other, and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn.

  • Isaiah 30:30-33

    And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones. For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod. And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the Lord shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it. For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.

  • 1 Chronicles 21:16

    And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the Lord stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
the angel.
10:12,16-19,33,34; 30:30-33; 31:8; 33:10-12; Ex 12:23; 2Sa 24:16
2Ki 19:35; 1Ch 21:12,16; 2Ch 32:21,22; Ps 35:5,6; Ac 12:23
and when.
Ex 12:30; Job 20:5-7; 24:24; Ps 46:6-11; 76:5-7; 1Th 5:2,3

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Isaiah 37:35

    For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.

  • Isaiah 37:36

    Then the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

  • Isaiah 37:37

    So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.

Read all of Isaiah 37

Isaiah 37:36 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Y salió el ángel de Jehová, é hirió ciento ochenta y cinco mil en el campo de los Asirios: y cuando se levantaron por la mañana, he aquí que todo era cuerpos de muertos.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Et un ange de l’ Éternel sortit, et frappa dans le camp des Assyriens 185 000 hommes; et quand on se leva le matin, voici, c’étaient tous des corps morts.
German
Elberfelder 1871		Und ein Engel Jehovas zog aus und schlug in dem Lager der Assyrer 185000 Mann. Und als man des Morgens früh aufstand, siehe, da waren sie allesamt Leichname.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Egressus est autem angelus Domini, et percussit in castris Assyriorum centum octoginta quinque millia. Et surrexerunt mane, et ecce omnes cadavera mortuorum.