Isaiah 33:1

This chapter is described by Jamieson as the final prophecy of Isaiah relative to the destruction of Sennacherib's army encamped before Jerusalem. The date of the prophecy is just prior to 701 B.C., when the death of the Assyrian army occurred. Unbelieving, critical scholars as a general rule date the prophecy "after the Babylonian captivity,"[1] but it is refreshing that one of their number raised a flag of caution on the blind acceptance of such speculations regarding the date of Isaiah's prophecies, and commented that it is "very precarious." He even mentioned, "Our almost complete ignorance"[2] of vast stretches of the pre-Christian history. He declared that, "If the prophecy is Isaiah's, the date Isaiah 701 B.C."[3]

With regard to "whose prophecy this is," it can only belong to Isaiah. That great mythical scholar and most famous writer of a thousand years, the imaginary redactor and editor of Isaiah who was recently invented by critics and is falsely alleged by them to have existed in later ages and who managed to impose his personal writings as having been produced by the great eighth century prophet, Isaiah, - that character is simply a hoax. He never existed anywhere on earth except in the imaginations of critics; and Christians who are willing to believe in such "phantoms" need to rely upon their own God-given intelligence for just a few minutes to behold the fraud in such postulations as those of destructive critics trying to discredit the Bible. Christ himself found no problems with Isaiah's prophecy and frequently quoted from every section in it.

Not even the unbelieving hypocrites of Jesus' day would have denied that all of Isaiah was written by Isaiah. It is incredible that critics could have supposed that "some unknown author" could be substituted by the critics for the real author.

We like the way certain scholars (and remember that these scholars already knew all of the critical arguments, this being true simply because there has been no new argument in centuries) have stated unequivocally the date of this prophecy. Cheyne said, "The date is the 27th year of the reign of Hezekiah, in 701 B.C."[4] Barnes, Hailey, Lowth, Rawlinson, Gleason, and literally hundreds of other scholars long ago rejected the forced and illogical arguments resorted to by critics in their vain efforts to destroy the Bible. As Barnes noted, the historical, political, and geographical situation in Isaiah, "Agree far better with the times of Sennacherib's invasion (701 B.C.) than with: (1) either the Babylonian period, or (2) with the judgments that came upon the Syrians in the Maccabean period."[5]

Isaiah 33:1

"Woe to thee that destroyest, and thou wast not destroyed, and that dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! When thou hast ceased to destroy, thou shalt be destroyed; and when thou hast made an end of dealing treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee."

The historical situation here is reflected in every line of the verse. Sennacherib had already destroyed the outlying cities of Judah, and he had lyingly promised Hezekiah that for a tribute of 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold, he would spare Jerusalem. At great cost and hardship Hezekiah had complied with the demand, even cutting off the gold decorations of the temple doors in order to meet the tremendous burden of the tribute. But no sooner was the tribute received than Sennacherib demanded the surrender of the city; and this prophecy was uttered, probably from the walls of Jerusalem and was addressed to Rabshakeh or to Sennacherib himself by Isaiah, who fearlessly denounced the invader and prophesied his ruin and destruction.

"Thou that destroyest, and thou wast not destroyed ... dealt treacherously, etc. ..." (Isaiah 33:1). Sennacherib had brutally betrayed and devastated all of the cities of Judah, and no harm had as yet come to him; but God sent him a message through Isaiah: "Thou shalt be destroyed ... They shall deal treacherously with thee!" Was this fulfilled? It was literally fulfilled when God put his hook in the nose of that evil pagan ruler and dragged him back to Nineveh. His army had perished in a night, and on the way back home, "they" despoiled him, taking advantage of him at every post on the way back. Who were the "they"? They were the remnants of those betrayed and mined cities. He even lost all of that gold and silver tribute, because, as Lowth explained, "Hezekiah, after the destruction of the Assyrian army, had exceeding much riches, and that he made himself treasuries for silver, and for gold, and for precious stones. He was so rich that, out of pride and vanity, he displayed his wealth before the ambassadors from Babylon. This cannot be otherwise accounted for, than by the prodigious spoil that was taken upon the destruction of Sennacherib's army."[6] See 2 Chronicles 32:27.

And we may ask, who was it that "dealt treacherously" with Sennacherib? It was his own sons. "And it came to pass when he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhadon his son reigned in his stead" (2 Kings 19:36-37).

Not only is all of this remarkable; but there is also absolutely nothing that corresponds with any of this in any of the erroneous dates proposed by critics.