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Isaiah 37:22

in Isaiah 37

this is the word that the LORD has spoken against him: ‘The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises you and mocks you; the Daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head behind you.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

this is the word which Jehovah hath spoken concerning him: The virgin daughter of Zion hath despised thee and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.

KJV

This is the word which the Lord hath spoken concerning him; The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.

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This verse in Isaiah 37

Commentary

7 notes on this verse
The virgin, the daughter of Zion - Jerusalem (see the note at Isa 1:8; compare the note at Isa 23:12). The parallelism in this and the following verses shows that the poetic form of speech is here introduced. Hast despised thee - That is, it is secure from thy contemplated attack. The idea is, that Jerusalem would exult over the ineffectual attempts of Sennacherib to take it, and over his complete overthrow. Hath laughed thee to scorn - Will make thee an object of derision.

This site's exposition

Because you have prayed to Me concerning Sennacherib

on Isaiah 37:21-22

Isaiah's oracle answers the prayer by name: Because you have prayed to Me concerning Sennacherib. The answer returns the taunt upon the taunter: The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises you. The city shakes her head behind you, taking the posture of contempt the Assyrian letters had aimed at the LORD.

This site's exposition

The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises you

Barnes notes that the parallel lines mark the start of a poem, and the oracle turns from prose to verse here. The virgin is Jerusalem, pictured as a city no conqueror has taken. She shakes her head at his back as he retreats.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Isaiah · Written before 420.

proposed

(v. 21 seqq.) However, Isaiah (also known as Josiah), the son of Amos, sent to Hezekiah saying: Thus says the Lord God of Israel: concerning what you asked me about Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, this is the word that the Lord spoke about him: He has despised you and mocked you, O virgin daughter of Zion. After you, the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head. Whom did you reproach and blaspheme? Against whom did you raise your voice and lift your eyes in pride, to the Holy One of Israel?

The Medieval Church1 voice

A commentator

Thomas Aquinas

Commentary on Isaiah · Written before 1274.

proposed

First, he threatens the punishment of confusion for his contempt for the Jews: the virgin the daughter of Zion has despised you, when she refused to respond to you; will wag the head, in the future, when you flee with a few men, the others …

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

This is the word which the Lord hath spoken concerning him,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

Transition to poetry: in parallelism. virgin . . . daughter--honorable terms. "Virgin" implies that the city is, as yet, inviolate. "Daughter" is an abstract collective feminine personification of the population, the child of the place denoted (see on Isa 23:10;

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

The words behind it

18 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • זֶ֣הthis

    zehH2088 →1180 times

  • הַדָּבָ֔ר[is] the word

    hadavarH1697 →1440 times

  • אֲשֶׁר־which

    ʾasher-H834 →5497 times

  • דִּבֶּ֥רhe has spoken

    diberH1696 →1141 times

  • יְהוָ֖הYahweh

    yahwehH3068 →6520 times

  • עָלָ֑יוon him

    ʾalavH5921 →5755 times

  • בָּזָ֨הshe has despised

    bazahH959 →44 times

  • לְךָ֜<to> you

    lekha

  • לָעֲגָ֣הshe has mocked

    laagahH3932 →

  • לְךָ֗<to> you

    lekha

  • בְּתוּלַת֙[the] virgin of

    betulatH1330 →50 times

  • בַּת־[the] daughter of

    bat-H1323 →588 times

  • צִיּ֔וֹןZion

    tziyonH6726 →154 times

  • אַחֲרֶ֙יךָ֙behind you

    ʾachareikhaH310 →715 times

  • רֹ֣אשׁa head

    roshH7218 →599 times

  • הֵנִ֔יעָהshe has shaken

    heniahH5128 →40 times

  • בַּ֖ת[the] daughter of

    batH1323 →588 times

  • יְרוּשָׁלִָֽם׃Jerusalem

    yerushalimH3389 →643 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

18 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Job 16:4I could also speak like you if you were in my place; I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you.4 worksIsaiah 47:1“Go down and sit in the dust, O Virgin Daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, O Daughter of Chaldea! For you will no longer be called tender or delicate.4 worksPsalms 22:7–8All who see me mock me; they sneer and shake their heads:3 worksJeremiah 14:17You are to speak this word to them: ‘My eyes overflow with tears; day and night they do not cease, for the virgin daughter of my people has been shattered by a crushing blow, a severely grievous wound.3 worksZechariah 2:10“Shout for joy and be glad, O Daughter of Zion, for I am coming to dwell among you,” declares the LORD.3 worksLamentations 2:13What can I say for you? To what can I compare you, O Daughter of Jerusalem? To what can I liken you, that I may console you, O Virgin Daughter of Zion? For your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can ever heal you?3 works
The other 12 cross-references, with their words ▾
Isaiah 1:8And the Daughter of Zion is abandoned like a shelter in a vineyard, like a shack in a cucumber field, like a city besieged.3 worksZephaniah 3:14Sing for joy, O Daughter of Zion; shout aloud, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O Daughter of Jerusalem!3 worksPsalms 9:14that I may declare all Your praises— that within the gates of Daughter Zion I may rejoice in Your salvation.3 worksDeuteronomy 33:12Concerning Benjamin he said: “May the beloved of the LORD rest secure in Him; God shields him all day long, and upon His shoulders he rests.”3 worksEzekiel 38:7Get ready; prepare yourself, you and all your company gathered around you; you will be their guard.3 worksIsaiah 10:32Yet today they will halt at Nob, shaking a fist at the mount of Daughter Zion, at the hill of Jerusalem.3 worksJeremiah 18:16They have made their land a desolation, a perpetual object of scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and shake their heads.3 worksLamentations 2:15All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”3 worksPsalms 129:5May all who hate Zion be turned back in shame.3 worksPsalms 46:1–7God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble.2 works1 Samuel 17:44–47“Come here,” he called to David, “and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!”2 worksLamentations 1:15The Lord has rejected all the mighty men in my midst; He has summoned an army against me to crush my young warriors. Like grapes in a winepress, the Lord has trampled the Virgin Daughter of Judah.2 works

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Jeremiah 14:17

    You are to speak this word to them: ‘My eyes overflow with tears; day and night they do not cease, for the virgin daughter of my people has been shattered by a crushing blow,…

    it leads to

    • Jeremiah 8:21

      For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am crushed. I mourn; horror has gripped me.

  • Through

    Job 16:4

    I could also speak like you if you were in my place; I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you.

    it leads to

    • Psalms 22:7

      All who see me mock me; they sneer and shake their heads:

    • Psalms 109:25

      I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.

  • Through

    Lamentations 2:13

    What can I say for you? To what can I compare you, O Daughter of Jerusalem? To what can I liken you, that I may console you, O Virgin Daughter of Zion? For your…

    it leads to

    • Lamentations 1:12

      Is this nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and see! Is there any sorrow like mine, which was inflicted on me, which the LORD made me suffer on the day…

  • Through

    Zechariah 2:10

    “Shout for joy and be glad, O Daughter of Zion, for I am coming to dwell among you,” declares the LORD.

    it leads to

    • John 1:14

      The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

    • Zechariah 9:9

      Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of…

    • Matthew 28:20

      and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

    • Zechariah 8:3

      This is what the LORD says: “I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of Hosts will be…

Where this verse is studied

On this page

Studies1

About Isaiah

The Prophet Isaiah, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Prophet Isaiah, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Isaiah: the study guide →Read Isaiah 37 →

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.

Read on in Isaiah 37 →