Through Isaiah YHWH Gives A Sign That Jerusalem's Deliverance Is At Hand (2 Kings 19:29-31).
As in the case of Moses in Exodus 3:12 and Isaiah's prophecy in Isaiah 7:14 the sign now given was to be found in the guarantee of a future event, not in the event itself. It was saying, ‘this is what I, YHWH, intend to do, and you may take me at My word. Because it is My promise it is the guarantee of its fulfilment, and it is that certain guarantee that is the sign that I have given.' In this case the promise that by the third year from when it was spoken they would be carrying out their normal agricultural activity from start to finish was a promise that the siege was about to end (otherwise it could not happen).
There is a deliberate change here from poetic metre to prose indicating emphatically that this is a new prophecy and not a part of the prophecy in 2 Kings 19:21-28. It is a promise of immediate deliverance.
Analysis.
· “And this will be the sign to you” (2 Kings 19:29 a).
· “You will eat this year what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs of the same, and in the third year sow you, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat its fruit” (2 Kings 19:29 b).
· “And the remnant which is escaped of the house of Judah will again take root downward, and bear fruit upward” (2 Kings 19:30).
· “For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant, and out of mount Zion they who will escape” (2 Kings 19:31 a).
· “The zeal of YHWH will perform this” (2 Kings 19:31 b).
Note that in ‘a' the guarantee is given as a sign, and in the parallel it is the zeal of YHWH which will perform it. In ‘b' they will leave the city almost immediately, so that normal agricultural activity, which will take time to establish, will begin, surviving in the meantime on what grows of itself, and in the parallel the remnant that remains who have escaped the anger of Sennacherib will go triumphantly out of Jerusalem. Centrally in ‘c' they will not only have physical blessing but will have spiritual blessing as they take root in the Law of YHWH and look up to Him in worship and prayer.
“And this will be the sign to you, You will eat this year what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs of the same, and in the third year sow you, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat its fruit.”
The sign that was being given was His guaranteed promise. And that promise was that within three years their agricultural round would be back to normal. It was presumably too late for the first sowing which would have to await the following year, thus in the first part year (from then until the New Year) they would have to eat what naturally grew out of the ground, in the second year (in the latter part of which they would be able to begin their sowing) they would survive on what resulted naturally from what grew in the first year, but by the third year what they had themselves sowed in the middle of the second year would be growing and be able to be reaped and eaten.
“And the remnant which is escaped of the house of Judah will again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.”
But their crops were not the only things that would become established. Those who remained of the house of Judah, those who had escaped the wrath of Sennacherib, would also themselves ‘take root downwards'. They would become firmly established, and that would include being established in His Law. And they would ‘bear fruit upwards', offering to God what was pleasing to Him, not only in offerings and sacrifices, but also in the fruit of their lives (see Isaiah 1:11-18).
“For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant, and out of mount Zion they who will escape. The zeal of YHWH will perform this.”
For it was YHWH' guarantee that a remnant would go forth out of Jerusalem, the remnant that now remained of all that Judah had been before the invasion. Out of Mount Zion would go those who had escaped the fearsome hand of Sennacherib. And this would be because YHWH had delivered them. They would be free and still living in their own land. And all this would be because YHWH was acting in His zealousness.
“The zeal of YHWH will perform this.” Compare Isaiah 9:7. In both cases the zeal of YHWH would bring about His will in establishing His Kingly Rule. The saying is typically Isaianic.