Week 28 Isaiah 36-39
I start reading chapter 36 and know right away that I’ve read it before. And not just last year. This year. I read this story late-April or early-May. I check a marginal cross-reference…find the same story in 2 Kings…then page through the two accounts. 2 Kings 18-20 is roughly equal to Isaiah 36-39.
I’m wondering how “roughly equal” they are so I find a second copy of the same version of the bible and lay the two side-by-side on the kitchen counter: left index finger on Isaiah 36:1…right finger on 2 Kings 18:13.
Right away I find a glitch – 2 Kings 18:14-16 is an extra paragraph that Isaiah skips. But after that it’s very close. I line them up verse-by-verse: 2 Kings 18:17 = Isaiah 36:2. Then 18:18=36:3. Then 19=4 20=5 21=6 22=7 23=8 24=9 25=10. Like that. 2 Kings adds a couple of phrases and names. But the two are about 97% the same.
I only take time to compare one chapter of the two accounts word-for-word. After that it’s paragraph-for-paragraph. But they keep looking very similar (the one huge difference is that Isaiah adds what looks like a psalm written by Hezekiah).
Isaiah was right there when the Assyrians threatened Jerusalem so I wonder if he wrote this account first and then had his story copied by the person who wrote Kings. Hard to say. I’m sure there’s an argument for both sides.
But it’s hard to say and maybe not worth the argument.
Note: Hezekiah’s psalm is in Isaiah 38:9-20