Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 37:36

"And 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." — Isaiah 37:36 (ASV)

Then the angel of the Lord.—These words, interpreted in light of 1 Chronicles 21:14, do not exclude—rather, they imply—the action of some form of epidemic disease, such as dysentery or the plague. Such diseases have often turned the fortunes of a campaign, perhaps spreading for some days.

Then, aggravated by atmospheric conditions like the thunderstorm implied in Isaiah 29:6 and Isaiah 30:27-30, it culminated in one night of horror. History, as written from the modern standpoint, would dwell on the details of the pestilence.

To Isaiah, who had learned to see in the winds the messengers of God (Psalms 104:4), it was nothing else than the “angel of the Lord.” So he would have said of the wreck of the Armada, “Afflavit Deus et dissipantur inimici,” or of Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow, “He sendeth forth his ice like morsels: who is able to abide his frost?” (Psalms 147:17).

The Assyrian records, as might be expected, do not mention the catastrophe. However, a singular parallel is presented by the account Herodotus gives (ii. 141), on the authority of the Egyptian priests, of the destruction of Sennacherib’s army when he invaded Egypt, then under the rule of Sethon, a priest of Ptah or Hephaestus.

The priest-king prayed to his gods, and the Assyrian army, then encamped before Pelusium, was attacked by myriads of field-mice. These mice gnawed the straps of their quivers, bows, and shields, thus making all their weapons useless and leading to their flight.

Therefore, the historian adds, a statue of Sethon stood in the Temple of Hephaestus at Memphis, with a mouse in one hand and the inscription: “Whosoever looks at me let him fear the gods.” Some writers (e.g., Ewald and Canon Rawlinson) have concluded from this that the pestilence fell on Sennacherib’s army at Pelusium, and not at Jerusalem.

It may be questioned, however, whether—even admitting that the narrative in its present form may be later than the exile—the probabilities do not actually favor the biblical record (compiled as it was by writers who had documents and inherited traditions) rather than the travelers’ tales which the vergers of Egyptian temples told to the good Herodotus.

In the camp of the Assyrians.—Josephus (Bell. Jud., 5.7.2) names a site in the outskirts of Jerusalem which in his time still bore this name.

The narrative of Isaiah leaves room for a considerable interval between his prophecy and the dread work of the destroyer (2 Kings 19:35). The phrase “In that night” does not necessarily imply immediate sequence; the demonstrative adjective is used, like the Latin iste or ille, for “that memorable night.”