The big picture
Isaiah 36 is a siege chapter in which almost nothing is decided by combat. Assyria arrives with a real military record behind its words, and Rabshakeh turns that record into a carefully staged argument aimed at collapsing Jerusalem before the wall is breached. He attacks confidence in Egypt, mocks Judah's military capacity, misreads Hezekiah's reforms, claims authorization from the LORD, and then shifts audiences when the royal officials ask him to speak diplomatically. His most attractive offer hides deportation inside the word "until": keep your vines, fig trees, and cisterns until Assyria removes you to another land. The theological pressure is even sharper. Jerusalem is asked to classify the LORD as one defeated national god among many. The Book of Isaiah lets the speech expose its own flexibility and contradictions without interrupting every claim. The chapter ends not with a clever rebuttal but with commanded silence, torn clothes, and the threat carried intact to Hezekiah.
Central truth
Isaiah 36:1–37:38 sets Assyria's public intimidation against Hezekiah's prayer, and the LORD answers the empire's boast by defending Jerusalem without Judah winning the contest by its own strength.
The study notes have a page of their own
The movement by movement analysis, the words to trace, the verse by verse notes and where readers differ are written for someone studying alone. They are on the Deep Personal Reflections page for this chapter. This page is the lesson.
A chapter-specific teaching brief
These anchors come from this chapter itself. They help a teacher use the Level 1 overview, the Level 2 study, and the Scripture text as one lesson.
Open with the chapter’s first image
Isaiah 36:1: “Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the defenced cities of Judah, and took…”
Slow down at the turning point
Isaiah 36:11: “Then said Eliakim and Shebna and Joah unto Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray thee, unto thy servants in the Syrian language; for we understand it: and speak not to…”
Keep this word trail visible
king, Hezekiah, Assyria, land, LORD, hand
What to explain, in order
Teach the passage in this order. Each step names the verses it rests on, so every point can be shown in the text before it is applied.
Isaiah 36:1-3
At the same conduit, a generation later
Begin with the setting. In 701 BC, Hezekiah’s fourteenth year, Sennacherib has taken the fortified cities of Judah, including Lachish, and Jerusalem is nearly alone. Point out where Rabshakeh stands: “by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller’s field” (36:2). That is the very place where Isaiah met Ahaz in 7:3 and called him to believe. Explain that Rabshakeh is a title, the chief officer, not a name. Teach this first because the class should hear chapters 36-37 as the second test at the same spot: Ahaz failed it, and now Hezekiah faces it.
Isaiah 36:4-10
What confidence is this
Read Rabshakeh’s first speech aloud with energy; it is a master class in intimidation. Explain each argument: Egypt is a splintered reed, the Lord is offended by Hezekiah’s reforms, Judah is too weak to field cavalry, and the Lord sent Assyria anyway. Explain 36:7: Hezekiah had removed local shrines to centre worship in Jerusalem (2 Kings 18:4), which an outsider could twist into an insult to God. Spend time on 36:10, because a half-truth is the most dangerous kind of lie. Rabshakeh asks the right question, “What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?” The rest of the unit answers it.
Isaiah 36:11-22
Speaking to the wall
Read 36:11-13 and explain that Aramaic was the diplomatic language of the time, while the people on the wall spoke Hebrew. Rabshakeh switches deliberately to the crowd. Summarise the coarse line of 36:12 without reading it to young groups: it describes the starvation of a siege. Then read his appeal in 36:14-20. Point out how attractive the offer of 36:16-17 sounds, every man under his own vine, until 36:17 reveals deportation. Close with 36:21-22: the people hold their peace as commanded, and the officials come to the king with torn clothes. Silence can be an act of faith.
Isaiah 37:1-13
Sackcloth and a second threat
Read 37:1-4. Hezekiah tears his clothes, puts on sackcloth, goes to the house of the Lord and sends for Isaiah. Explain the image of 37:3: children at the point of birth with no strength to deliver, a picture of total helplessness. Isaiah’s answer is short: “Be not afraid” (37:6), and he promises a rumour that will send the king home. Then Sennacherib sends a letter repeating the threat, this time against God directly: “Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee” (37:10). Teach this step so the class sees that the first answer did not end the pressure.
Isaiah 37:14-20
The letter spread before the Lord
This is the centre of the unit. Act out 37:14 if you can: take a letter, read it, and lay it open on a table. Then read the prayer slowly. Show its shape: who God is (37:16), a plea to hear and see (37:17), an honest admission of the facts (37:18-19), and a request with a purpose (37:20). Explain that Hezekiah does not deny Assyria’s record; he denies that the gods it destroyed were gods. Ask the class what it would look like to spread their own threatening letters before the Lord.
Isaiah 37:21-38
The Lord answers and the camp falls
Read the Lord’s answer in 37:22-29 as a taunt sung by Zion: the virgin daughter shakes her head at the tyrant. Explain the hook in the nose as how captives were led. Then the sign of 37:30-32: two years of whatever grows by itself, and in the third year planting and harvest, with a remnant that takes root downward and bears fruit upward. Read 37:33-35 and the outcome of 37:36-38 plainly. Handle the deaths in the camp soberly. End with Sennacherib killed in the temple of his own god, the god who could not deliver him.
Where learners get stuck
The misreadings this passage tends to produce, and how to answer each from the text.
“Rabshakeh was right that Egypt could not help, so he was telling the truth.”
Some of what he says is true; Isaiah had said the same about Egypt in 30:1-7 and 31:1-3. That is what makes his speech effective. But he joins true facts to a lie, that the Lord cannot or will not deliver (36:15, 36:18-20), and to a twisted claim that the Lord sent him to destroy (36:10). The lesson is to test the conclusion, not only the facts, of anyone who uses religious language to frighten.
“If you pray like Hezekiah, God will always rescue you from danger.”
God answered this prayer with a deliverance, and the passage wants us to see that he hears. But the reason given is specific: “for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake” (37:35), tied to God’s promise to David and his purpose that the kingdoms may know him (37:20). Elsewhere faithful people suffer and die. Teach Hezekiah’s prayer as a pattern of trust that brings the threat to God, not as a guarantee of a particular outcome.
“God killing the Assyrian army shows he does not care about his enemies.”
Isaiah 37:36 is a hard verse and should be read soberly, not celebrated. The text presents it as judgment on an empire that had “laid waste all the nations” (37:18) and blasphemed the living God (37:17, 37:23). The same book calls Assyria “the work of my hands” in 19:25. God is judge of the nations, and his judgments are serious. Let learners voice the difficulty and do not rush to explain it away.
“Hezekiah was a perfect king, so Jerusalem was saved because of him.”
Hezekiah trusted the Lord in this crisis, and 2 Kings 18:5 praises him. But Isaiah 37:35 gives the reason for the rescue: the Lord’s own sake and David’s sake, not Hezekiah’s merit. The next unit, chapters 38-39, shows Hezekiah’s weakness with the envoys from Babylon. The hero of chapters 36-37 is the Lord, who answers the boast of Assyria. Hezekiah’s part is to pray.
Learning objectives
- List Rabshakeh's main arguments in Isaiah 36 and identify how each pressures Jerusalem to surrender.
- Explain why Rabshakeh insists on speaking in the Jews' language before the people on the wall.
- Compare the officials' silence in 36:21 with Hezekiah's later prayer in 37:14–20.
- Trace Hezekiah's movement from torn garments to Isaiah's word, the threatening letter, and prayer.
- Identify the central charge against Assyria in 37:23–29: it has reproached the Holy One of Israel.
- Describe the outcome in 37:33–38 and distinguish the LORD's deliverance from Judah's military achievement.
Teacher preparation
- Prepare the historical setting of Sennacherib's invasion during Hezekiah's reign and locate Lachish and Jerusalem on a map.
- Explain that 'Rabshakeh' functions as an Assyrian court or military title rather than needing to be treated as the envoy's personal name.
- Clarify 'Syrian language' in Isaiah 36:11 as Aramaic and 'Jews' language' as the local language understood by the people on the wall.
- Read the Rabshakeh's speech closely enough to separate true observations from false conclusions.
- Mark the sequence in Isaiah 37:14–20: receive letter, read letter, go to the house of the LORD, spread letter before the LORD, pray.
Evidence and interpretation checks
Explicit
Isaiah 36:4 questions Judah's confidence; 37:14 says Hezekiah spreads the letter before the LORD; 37:23 says Assyria reproached the Holy One of Israel.
Scripture-supported
Second Kings 18–19 preserves the same crisis and reinforces Isaiah's presentation of prayer, prophetic word, and divine deliverance.
Strong inference
Rabshakeh's loud use of the Jews' language in 36:11–13 strongly indicates deliberate psychological pressure on the people hearing from the wall.
Possible or traditional reading
The identity of the angelic action in 37:36 is sometimes discussed alongside other biblical judgments, but Isaiah does not name the angel or describe the mechanism.
Limit
The passage does not teach that every besieged city will receive Jerusalem's specific deliverance; it records this crisis, this prayer, and this announced act of God.
Discussion with answer guidance
1. What arguments does Rabshakeh use to make resistance look foolish in Isaiah 36:4–20?
What a good answer contains
He attacks every possible support. Egypt is “the staff of this broken reed” that pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it (36:6). The Lord cannot help, he says, because Hezekiah removed his high places and altars (36:7). Judah cannot even find riders for two thousand horses (36:8). The Lord himself sent Assyria (36:10). Then to the people: Hezekiah will deceive you (36:14); surrender and eat from your own vine (36:16-17); no god of any nation has saved its land (36:18-20). A good answer sees that the speech is built to leave the listener with nothing to trust.
Show teacher guidance
List the pressure points: Egypt, Hezekiah's reforms, Judah's weakness, claimed divine authorization, siege horror, surrender promises, and defeated gods.
2. Why does Rabshakeh refuse the officials' request to speak Aramaic in verse 11?
What a good answer contains
Because he is not negotiating with the officials; he is trying to break the people. The officials ask him to speak in Aramaic, “the Syrian language”, so that the people “that are on the wall” will not understand (36:11). Rabshakeh answers that he was sent precisely to the men on the wall, who will suffer the worst of a siege (36:12), and then shouts louder in Hebrew (36:13). A good answer recognises propaganda: the aim is to divide the people from their king and spread fear.
Show teacher guidance
Verse 12 makes his target explicit: the people sitting on the wall.
3. What is dangerous about Rabshakeh's claim in 36:10 that the LORD told him to attack?
What a good answer contains
He claims God’s authority for his own ambitions: “the LORD said unto me, Go up against this land, and destroy it” (36:10). It is dangerous because it sounds plausible; Isaiah himself had said in 10:5 that Assyria was the rod of the Lord’s anger. Rabshakeh uses a half-truth to make resistance seem like resisting God. A strong answer notes that 37:23-29 answers it: the Lord did purpose Assyria’s rise, but the king’s rage was against the Holy One of Israel, and God will turn him back.
Show teacher guidance
The claim borrows theological language to authorize Assyria.
4. How does Hezekiah handle the second threat in 37:14–20 differently from Rabshakeh's public performance?
What a good answer contains
Rabshakeh performs before a crowd; Hezekiah goes quietly to God. He “received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up unto the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD” (37:14). Then he prays, beginning not with the threat but with who God is: “thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and earth” (37:16). A good answer notes he also obeyed the command not to answer (36:21) and asked Isaiah to pray (37:4).
Show teacher guidance
He reads the letter, goes to the house of the LORD, spreads it before the LORD, and prays.
5. What does Hezekiah ask for in verse 20 beyond mere survival?
What a good answer contains
He asks that God be known. “Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD, even thou only” (37:20). Survival is asked for, but for a purpose beyond Jerusalem. A good answer connects this to 37:19, where Hezekiah admits that the other nations’ gods were destroyed because “they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands”. The prayer answers Rabshakeh’s question in 36:20 directly.
Show teacher guidance
He asks for salvation so that all kingdoms may know that the LORD alone is God.
6. How does the LORD answer Sennacherib's boast in 37:23–29?
What a good answer contains
The Lord tells Sennacherib whom he has really insulted: “even against the Holy One of Israel” (37:23). He quotes the king’s boasts back to him, chariots on the mountains, cedars cut down, rivers dried by his feet (37:24-25). Then: “Hast thou not heard long ago, how I have done it” (37:26); the king’s conquests were the Lord’s purpose all along. Finally, “I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips” (37:29), the treatment given to a captive or a beast. A good answer sees boast, exposure and reversal.
Show teacher guidance
The answer names the true target as the Holy One of Israel, exposes the king's self-exalting claims, and says his conquests occurred within what the LORD had purposed.
Responsible application
Heart and habits
Give learners a fabricated threatening memo filled with facts, exaggerations, and theological claims.
Relationships and community
Ask how leaders should communicate during a public crisis when rumor and intimidation target the whole community.
Spread the letter
Place a printed summary of the Assyrian threat on a table and read Isaiah 37:14–20.
Session plans
Two timings of the same lesson. The shorter keeps the reading, the central discussion and one response; the longer gives the confusions and the application their own time.
45 minutes
The same spot
Read 7:3 and then 36:1-3. Explain the setting in 701 BC and the place where Rabshakeh stands.
The speech
Have a strong reader deliver 36:4-20. Take question one and question three, then confusion one.
Speaking to the wall
Take question two from 36:11-13 and read 36:21.
The letter spread out
Read 37:1-7, then 37:14-20, laying a letter open on the table. Take questions four and five and confusion two.
The answer
Read 37:21-29 and 37:33-38. Take question six and confusion three.
Response
Give out the handout, read 37:20 together and pray.
90 minutes
Messages that frighten
Ask the group about a message, letter or news report that frightened them. Do not discuss details; ask only what it felt like. Keep this for 37:14.
Ahaz and Hezekiah
Read 7:1-9 and 36:1-3. Explain 701 BC, Lachish and the conduit. Ask what the two kings had in common.
Rabshakeh’s case
Read 36:4-20 with one reader. Take questions one, two and three and confusion one. Read 2 Kings 18:4 for the reforms.
Silence and sackcloth
Read 36:21-37:13. Explain 37:3 and Isaiah’s answer. Ask why the threat came back a second time.
The prayer
Read 37:14-20 twice. Take questions four and five and confusion two. Draw the four parts of the prayer on the board.
The answer and the sign
Read 37:21-38. Take question six and confusions three and four. Explain the sign of 37:30-32.
Spread the letter
Give each person a blank card to write a threat or worry on privately, then pray over the cards together without reading them.
Key verse and prayer
Read 37:20 together, give out the handout and close.
Adapting the lesson
Children
Tell how a big army came and a loud man shouted scary things at the people on the city wall. Then show a letter and let a child carry it to a table and open it out, the way Hezekiah spread the letter before God. Pray together for anything that scares them. Say God protected the city. Leave out the coarse words of 36:12 and the number of the dead.
Youth
Read Rabshakeh’s speech and ask them to spot the tricks: half-truths, fear, flattery, mocking. Compare it with online pressure and bullying they have seen. Then read Hezekiah’s prayer and ask how it is different from just worrying. Let them write a short prayer in the same four parts. Keep the conversation on their world, not on present governments or wars.
Adults
Give time to the history of 701 BC and the parallel in 2 Kings 18-19, and to the comparison with Ahaz in chapter 7. Discuss how religious language can be used to intimidate, inside and outside the church. Some adults face real threats: lawsuits, diagnoses, debts. Give them space to name these to God, and be honest that the passage shows how to pray rather than promising the same outcome.
One to one
Ask the person if there is a letter, message or report they have been carrying in their mind. Read 37:14 and, if they are willing, have them lay it before God in prayer with you, in their own words. Read 37:16 first so the prayer begins with who God is. Follow up later to ask how it went, without assuming the answer.
Song and video learning lab
A song or video may interpret, compress, or dramatize the text. Its value becomes clearer when its choices are compared with Scripture.
- Before the media: the exact passage and its central movement.
- During the media: the words, people, events, and emotions the artist emphasizes.
- After the media: what it clarifies, what it leaves out, and what belongs back in the biblical text.
Handout
One page for learners to take home. The print button prints this section alone.
Isaiah 36:1–37:38
The passage in brief
In Isaiah 36-37 the Assyrian army has captured the towns of Judah and surrounds Jerusalem. An Assyrian officer called Rabshakeh shouts at the people on the wall, telling them that Egypt cannot help, King Hezekiah is deceiving them, and the Lord cannot save them any more than other gods saved their lands. The people stay silent. King Hezekiah goes to the temple, and when a threatening letter comes, he spreads it out before the Lord and prays that all kingdoms may know that he alone is God. God answers through Isaiah, defends the city, and sends the Assyrian king home.
A verse to keep
Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD, even thou only.
Isaiah 37:20 · King James Version
Questions to take home
What did Rabshakeh try to make the people believe in 36:14-20?
What did Hezekiah do with the letter in 37:14?
Why did Hezekiah want God to save Jerusalem, according to 37:20?
This week
Write down one worry, lay the paper open before God in prayer, and begin by telling him who he is.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
