Isaiah 37:7
ESV
Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’"
NIV
Listen! When he hears a certain report, I will make him want to return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.’ "
NASB
Behold, I am going to put a spirit in him so that he will hear news and return to his own land. And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.'?’?'
CSB
I am about to put a spirit in him and he will hear a rumor and return to his own land, where I will cause him to fall by the sword.’"
NLT
Listen! I myself will move against him, and the king will receive a message that he is needed at home. So he will return to his land, where I will have him killed with a sword.’'
KJV
Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
NKJV
Surely I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.” ’ ”
What does Isaiah 37:7 mean?
Speaking through Isaiah (Isaiah 37:1–5), the Lord is reassuring Hezekiah. He should not be dismayed by the words of Sennacherib's messenger (Isaiah 36:11–12, 18–20). In essence, those words amounted to saying that the Lord was just the same as all the other gods of all the other nations the Assyrians had conquered. Just like those gods, the Lord seemed powerless to stop Sennacherib.The Lord's response shows that Sennacherib's words mean nothing to Him. No matter how imposing or how devastating the Assyrian army has been, the Lord can dispatch both Sennacherib and his army in a moment. God's message to Israel is the same as it has always been to His people: "fear the Lord, not your enemies."
Graciously, God reveals to how He will deal with Sennacherib. The Lord will make him believe in a rumor and return to his own land. There, surprisingly, he will be killed. Both Isaiah and Assyrian sources record that Sennacherib died back home in Nineveh, assassinated by his sons while worshiping in the temple of one of his gods (Isaiah 37:37–38).
The use of the word "spirit" seems to mean that the Lord will make Sennacherib's receptive to whatever rumor will send him home. It's unclear how the Lord's use of this rumor fits with what follows about the Lord's defense of Jerusalem (Isaiah 37:36). The greater point is that the Lord fully controls human leaders. He can change their course and end their lives with a thought. Proverbs 21:1 puts it this way, "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will."
