Isaiah 37 — Dead Sea Scrolls
38 verses • 9 variants • Columns XXIX–XXX of 1QIsaiah-a
Scroll Overview
Summary
Chapter 37 is the longest in this range (38 verses), narrating Hezekiah's prayer, Isaiah's oracle against Sennacherib, and the angel's destruction of the Assyrian army. As historical prose paralleling 2 Kings 19, variants are relatively few. The theological climax is the destruction of 185,000 Assyrian soldiers.
Notable Variants
Verse 16 has Hezekiah's address to the 'LORD of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned on the cherubim.' Verse 22 has the 'virgin daughter of Zion' taunting Sennacherib. Verse 36 has the angel destroying the Assyrian camp. All are preserved identically or with only orthographic differences.
Scroll Condition
Well preserved; fully legible.
When King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his robes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXIX, line 22
He sent Eliakim, who was over the palace, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, all covered in sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, son of Amoz.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXIX, line 23
They said to him, 'This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace. Children have come to the point of birth, but there is no strength to deliver them.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXIX, line 24
Perhaps the LORD your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the LORD your God has heard. Lift up a prayer for the remnant that still survives.'
Masoretic (WLC)
שָׁמַעְתָּ
you have heard
Dead Sea Scroll
שמעתה
you have heard
1QIsaiah-a writes שמעתה with a final he as a mater lectionis for the second-person suffix. This is a common Qumran morphological convention. No impact on meaning.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXIX, line 25
When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah,
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXIX, line 26
Isaiah said to them, 'Say this to your master: This is what the LORD says — Do not be afraid of the words you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXIX, line 27
I am about to put a spirit in him so that he hears a rumor and returns to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.'
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 1
The Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that Sennacherib had moved on from Lachish.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 2
He heard it said concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, 'He has come out to fight against you.' When he heard this, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 3
'Say this to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you by saying that Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 4
You have surely heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And will you be delivered?
Masoretic (WLC)
אֱלֹהֵי
God of
Dead Sea Scroll
אלוהי
God of
1QIsaiah-a writes אלוהי with plene spelling. The catalog of destroyed nations whose gods could not save them is preserved identically. No impact on meaning.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 5
Did the gods of the nations deliver those my fathers destroyed — Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar?
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 6
Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?'
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 7
Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 8
Hezekiah prayed to the LORD, saying:
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 9
'O LORD of Hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim — You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth.
Masoretic (WLC)
יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל
LORD of hosts, God of Israel
Dead Sea Scroll
יהוה צבאות אלוהי ישראל
LORD of hosts, God of Israel
1QIsaiah-a reads the same divine title with plene spelling of אלוהי. Hezekiah's prayer address — 'LORD of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned on the cherubim' — is one of the most elaborate divine titles in the Hebrew Bible. It combines the military title (hosts), covenant identity (God of Israel), and temple presence (cherubim throne). Both traditions preserve this full formula.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 10
Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear. Open Your eyes, O LORD, and see. Hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he sent to mock the living God.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 11
It is true, LORD — the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands,
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 12
and have thrown their gods into the fire — for they were not gods at all, but the work of human hands, wood and stone. So they destroyed them.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 13
Now, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone are the LORD.'
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 14
Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah: 'This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says — Because you have prayed to Me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria,
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 15
this is the word the LORD has spoken against him: She despises you, she laughs you to scorn — the virgin daughter of Zion! Behind your back she shakes her head — the daughter of Jerusalem!
Masoretic (WLC)
בְּתוּלַת בַּת־צִיּוֹן
virgin daughter of Zion
Dead Sea Scroll
בתולת בת ציון
virgin daughter of Zion
1QIsaiah-a reads בתולת בת ציון identically. The personified 'virgin daughter of Zion' shakes her head in mockery at the fleeing Sennacherib — a stunning reversal from siege to triumph. The feminine personification of Jerusalem as a defiant woman is preserved in both traditions.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 16
Whom have you mocked and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel!
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 17
Through your servants you mocked the Lord, and you said: 'With my many chariots I have ascended the mountain heights, the remote peaks of Lebanon. I cut down its tallest cedars, its choicest cypresses. I reached its farthest height, its densest forest.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 18
I dug wells and drank foreign waters. With the sole of my feet I dried up all the streams of Egypt.'
Masoretic (WLC)
יַעַר
forest
Dead Sea Scroll
יער
forest
Identical consonantal text. The 'remnant of trees in his forest will be so few that a child could count them' — Assyria reduced to almost nothing. No impact on meaning.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 19
Have you not heard? Long ago I planned it. In days of old I designed it. Now I have brought it to pass — that you should crush fortified cities into heaps of rubble.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 20
Their inhabitants, shorn of strength, were dismayed and put to shame. They were like plants of the field, like tender green shoots, like grass on the rooftops, scorched before it can grow.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 21
I know your sitting down, your going out and your coming in, and your raging against Me.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 22
Because your raging against Me and your arrogance have reached My ears, I will put My hook in your nose and My bit in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way you came.
Masoretic (WLC)
מָרוֹם
heights
Dead Sea Scroll
מרום
heights
1QIsaiah-a writes מרום with identical consonants. Sennacherib's boast of ascending to the 'farthest heights' and the 'loftiest cedars' of Lebanon is preserved identically. No impact on meaning.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 23
This will be the sign for you: This year you will eat what grows on its own, and the second year what springs from that. But in the third year, sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 24
The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 25
For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go forth, and survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will accomplish this.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 26
Therefore, this is what the LORD says concerning the king of Assyria: He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not advance against it with shields or build a siege ramp against it.
Masoretic (WLC)
שִׁבָּלְתֶּךָ
your rising up
Dead Sea Scroll
שבלתכה
your rising up
1QIsaiah-a writes שבלתכה with a fuller suffix spelling. God knows Sennacherib's every move — sitting, going, coming, and raging. No impact on meaning.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 27
By the way he came, he will return, and he will not enter this city — declares the LORD.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 28
For I will defend this city and save it, for My own sake and for the sake of My servant David.'
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 29
The angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the Assyrian camp. When the survivors rose early in the morning, there were dead bodies everywhere.
Masoretic (WLC)
מַלְאַךְ יְהוָה
angel of the LORD
Dead Sea Scroll
מלאך יהוה
angel of the LORD
1QIsaiah-a reads מלאך יהוה identically. The destruction of 185,000 Assyrians by the angel of the LORD in a single night is one of the most dramatic interventions in the Hebrew Bible. The massive number and the overnight timing emphasize divine sovereignty over military power. Both traditions preserve this account without variation.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 30
Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp, departed, and returned to Nineveh, where he stayed.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 31
As he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword. They escaped to the land of Ararat, and his son Esarhaddon reigned in his place.
Masoretic (WLC)
אַדְרַמֶּלֶךְ
Adrammelech
Dead Sea Scroll
אדרמלך
Adrammelech
1QIsaiah-a writes אדרמלך identically. The murder of Sennacherib by his own sons Adrammelech and Sharezer while worshipping in the temple of Nisroch — divine poetic justice — is preserved in both traditions. The Assyrian king who mocked Israel's God dies in the temple of his own god.
1QIsaᵃ col. XXX, line 32