What does 2 Kings 19:31 Mean?

Context Summary

These verses, taken with Isaiah 10:5-15, form a most suggestive and sublime comment on the words, "the Lord reigneth." They show us God using the Assyrian as "the rod of His anger," and working personally and mightily through the politics of the world. Isaiah's faith, through all this terrible crisis, was the one bulwark behind which king and people lay entrenched. What a gift one such man is to an entire people! His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord, and he cannot be made afraid by evil tidings.

It has been suggested that this was a Sabbatic year, the produce of which sufficed for two years, 2 Kings 19:29. In any case, the Sabbatic peace and calm had entered Isaiah's soul. They who have learned to stay themselves on God may sing triumphal odes, in sure conviction of coming victory. Thus, also, it befell. The angel of God's deliverance wrought through some terrible outbreak of plague, and thus the tents were strewn with the silent corpses of men who had yesterday been full of manly vigor. The Lord was Judge, Lawgiver, and King; and saved His people, as the mother-bird, with outspread wing, protects her brood against the hawk. God's presence, like an invisible river, surrounded and saved His people. "The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge," Psalms 46:11. [source]

Chapter Summary: 2 Kings 19

¹  Hezekiah, in mourning, sends to Isaiah to pray for them
⁶  Isaiah comforts them
⁸  Sennacherib, going to encounter Tirhakah, sends a blasphemous letter to Hezekiah
¹⁴  Hezekiah's prayer
²⁰  Isaiah's prophecy of the destruction of Sennacherib, and the good of Zion
³⁵  An angel slays the Assyrians
³⁶  Sennacherib is slain by his own sons