Isaiah 37:37

37, 38. The flight of Sennacherib, and his death at Nineveh. If the passage be a combination of two parallel narratives, the second ends with Isa_37:36, while Isa_37:37-38 form the conclusion of the first. In the Hebrew, the first words of Isa_37:37 would be the correct continuation of “and when he heard it” in Isa_37:9.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Which was the chiefest city of the Assyrians.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

dwelt at Nineveh--for about twenty years after his disaster, according to the inscriptions. The word, "dwelt," is consistent with any indefinite length of time. "Nineveh," so called from Ninus, that is, Nimrod, its founder; his name means "exceedingly impious rebel"; he subverted the existing patriarchal order of society, by setting up a system of chieftainship, founded on conquest; the hunting field was his training school for war; he was of the race of Ham, and transgressed the limits marked by God (Gen 10:8-11, Gen 10:25), encroaching on Shem's portion; he abandoned Babel for a time, after the miraculous confusion of tongues and went and founded Nineveh; he was, after death, worshipped as Orion, the constellation (see on Job 9:9; Job 38:31).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(37) So Sennacherib . . .—We have to remember that the Assyrian king had been engaged in the siege of Libnah, probably also in an Egyptian expedition, which from some cause or other was unsuccessful. The course of events was probably this: that in Egypt he heard of the ravages of the pestilence, returned to find his army too weak to fight, and then, abandoning all further action in the south, withdrew to Nineveh.

Departed, and went and returned.—We are reminded by the three synonyms of the proverbial “abiit, evasit, erupit” of Cicero, in Catil. ii. (Del.).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

So Sennacherib departed - Probably with some portion of his army and retinue with him, for it is by no means probable that the whole army had been destroyed. In 2Ch 32:21, it is said that the angel ‘cut off all the mighty men of valor, and the leaders and captains in the camp of the king of Assyria.’ His army was thus entirely disabled, and the loss of so large a part of it, and the consternation produced by their sudden destruction, would of course lead him to abandon the siege.

Went and returned - Went from before Jerusalem and returned to his own land.

And dwelt at Nineveh - How long he dwelt there is not certainly known. Berosus, the Chaldean, says it was ‘a little while’ (see Jos. Ant. x. 1. 5). Nineveh was on the Tigris, and was the capital of Assyria. For an account of its site, and its present situation, see the American Biblical Repository for Jan. 1837, pp. 139-159.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

37, 38. The same lack of facts leaves it uncertain how long Sennacherib survived his mortifying return to Nineveh. The book of Tobit, (i, 21,) Josephus, (Antiquities, Isa_10:2; Isa_10:2,) and Rawlinson, all clash. See RAWLINSON’S Ancient Monarchies, vol. ii, page 169, where he claims that Sennacherib lived seventeen years after his return, made other wars, and left his power and territories undiminished for his son and successor, Esarhaddon. In this case, it must be suspected that some other hand than Isaiah’s added these last verses. In any case, the snatches of history furnished by the monuments, as yet only throw the subject into confusion rather than give the light required to explain some facts and apparent dates here presented.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

So Sennacherib... departed; rather, broke up his comp. The word used for all the removals of the children of Israel in the wilderness. (Num_33:3-48) The loss of even an entire corps d"armeee would not have caused an Assyrian king, at the head of an intact main army, to break up his camp and abandon his enterprise. And dwelt at Nineveh. Sennacherib lived some eighteen or twenty years from the probable date of his discomfiture, dying in B.C. 681. His ordinary residence was at Nineveh, which he greatly adorned and beautified ("Records of the Past," vol. 11. pp. 55-57). His father, Sargon, on the contrary, dwelt commonly at Khorsabad (Dur-Sargina), and his son, Esarhaddon, dwelt, during the latter part of his reign, at Babylon. We must not suppose, however, that Sennacherib was shut up in Nineveh during the remainder of his life. On the contrary, he made frequent expeditions towards the south, the east, and the north. But he made no farther expedition to the south-west, no further attack on Jerusalem, or attempt on Egypt. The Jews had peace, so far as the Assyrians were concerned, from the event related in ver. 36 to a late date in the reign of Esarhaddon.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

“Then decamped and departed and returned Sennacherib, king of Assyria, and dwelt (or remained) in Nineveh.” The form of expression in the first clause is thought by some writers to resemble Cicero’s famous description of Catiline’s escape (abiit, excessit, evasit, erupit), the rapid succession of the verbs suggesting the idea of confused and sudden flight. His dwelling in Nineveh is supposed by some interpreters to be mentioned as implying that he went forth no more to war, at least not against the Jews. An old tradition says that he lived only fifty days after his return; but according to other chronological hypotheses, he reigned eighteen years longer, and during that interval waged war successively against the Greeks and founded Tarsus in Cilicia.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Prophecies of Isaiah (1846–1847; New York: Scribner, 1870–1878) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

and dwelt in Nineveh That is the capital, as it is said (Gen. 10:11): “From that land Asshur came out, and he built Nineveh.”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.