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The Bible tells us that when Assyria’s King Sargon died, his son Sennacherib came to the throne.
King Hezekiah of Judah took advantage of this change in government to break free from Assyria’s control, and “He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him” (2 Kings 18:7).
At this point, Sennacherib besieged Judah and Jerusalem, to bring the country back under his thumb.
However, Isaiah prophesied “Behold, I will put a spirit (Hebrew rûach) in him [Sennacherib], 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” (2 Kings 19:7 ESV).
Then we read several verses later, after surrounding Jerusalem, that Sennacherib was forced to withdraw after the Angel of the Lord killed tens of thousands of his men (2 Kings 19:35).
We know from both the Biblical prophecy and archaeology, that shortly after his return to Assyria, Sennacherib was assassinated by his sons.
However, when we look at Isaiah’s prophecy in the ESV, we see no hint of the death of thousands of Assyrians. It just implies Sennacherib will hear rumors and withdraw.
Clearly, the death of 185,000 Assyrian soldiers was a major contributing factor leading to Sennacherib’s withdrawal.
So did Isaiah completely miss these deaths?
I don’t think so.
While the Bible clearly attributes the deaths of the Assyrian soldiers to the Angel of the Lord, it also provides some evidence of how the Angel did this.
Because, if we read Isaiah’s prophecy in the King James, it interprets the Hebrew slightly differently, reading, “Behold, I will send a blast (Hebrew rûach) upon him [Sennacherib], and he shall hear a rumor, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land” (2 Kings 19:7 KJV).
The Hebrew word, rûach, used in this verse, can be translated as either wind or spirit.
The King James version suggests that God would send a blast of wind against Sennacherib’s army and this, along with the rumor, would force him to withdraw.
On the other hand, the ESV implies that a spirit, possibly of fear, was put inside Sennacherib so he would believe reports of a potential uprising in Assyria.
We see the same issue in Jeremiah 51:1 which according to the King James version says that God sent a destroying wind against Babylon, while other versions read a Destroying Spirit.
While modern translations render rûach as spirit in these two verses, there is a deadly wind in the Middle East, called a ‘simoom’, which according to the Britannia Encyclopedia can suddenly appear bringing with it extreme temperatures of 130 F (55 C). The humidity can also fall dangerously below 10%.
“Simoom is an Arabic word that means ‘poison wind.’ It refers to the wind’s tendency to cause heatstroke as it brings more heat to the human body than is removed by the evaporation of perspiration,” writes John Rafferty in his explanation for Britannica.
There are recorded instances of herds of cattle and sheep and whole caravans being wiped out because of a simoom.
While people can seek shelter from the intense heat inside homes, soldiers caught out on an open battlefield would have no way of escaping it.
For the record, this wouldn’t be the first time that God used the wind to deliver Israel (read Exodus 14:21).