The next major section (36-39) is a series of narratives that demonstrate the importance of trusting in Yhwh alone, who again demonstrates that he is king over all the nations.[1] The Rabshakeh taunted Hezekiah and mocked Yhwh. But Hezekiah sent for Isaiah who prophesied that Yhwh would cause the king of Assyria to return to his own land where he would fall by the sword. In this section also Isaiah prays for deliverance, and this prayer draws on the themes of the preceding sections (Yhwh’s sovereignty over the nations) and anticipates the themes of the next section (the gods of the nations are idols, which means they are nothing in comparison to the true God).[2] The next two narratives precede in time Assyria’s siege of Jerusalem. In the first Hezekiah becomes sick and is told by Isaiah that he will die. However, Yhwh hears Hezekiah’s prayer and then sends word to Isaiah that Hezekiah will live another fifteen years. This prompts a psalm of praise from Hezekiah. The final narrative, however, does not put Hezekiah in a good light. He foolishly shows all his wealth to Babylonian envoys, and Isaiah is sent to declare to Hezekiah that one day all that treasure (and even some of his own sons) would be taken to Babylon. In Isaiah 36:2, the Rabshakeh of the king of Assyria came to the “conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field” to speak to Hezekiah (36:2). This is the same exact location where Isaiah, in chapter 7, met Ahaz declared to him: “If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all” (7:9, NIV). Ahaz did not stand firm in his faith; Hezekiah provides a counter-example of one who did trust in God. In between chapters 7 and 36 the oracles and woes emphasize that Judah and Jerusalem cannot trust in the nations or in their own might. These chapters further reveal that the great concern should not be conquest by the nations but the coming day of Yhwh.
[1] For the emphasis on trusting Yhwh, see Tully, Reading the Prophets as Christian Scripture, 161-62. For an emphasis on Yhwh as king, see Abernethy, The Book of Isaiah and God’s Kingdom, NSBT, 47-48.
[2] Wolf, Interpreting Isaiah, 175-76.