Hezekiah Responds to His Great Political Crisis: It will be a while before Yahweh will carry out the threat in verse 7. In the meantime, verses 8–35 go over similar ground to that just covered, and especially 36:18–37:7. Once again, Sennacherib sends a message to Jerusalem rather than coming himself. Once again he expresses contempt for Yahweh. Once again Hezekiah goes to the temple. Once again Isaiah sends him a message bringing Yahweh’s word of judgment and reassurance. As the story unfolds, the dramatic tension increases as we wait to see how and when Isaiah’s word in verse 7 will be fulfilled.

While the outline of events is the same, this second sequence is by no means mere repetition. In the manner of Hebrew parallelism, each major section heightens the point. We hear Sennacherib himse…