Britannica Sources used in this answer

Why did Isaiah believe Jerusalem would not fall to the Assyrians?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

The prophet Isaiah — Isaiah Miniature of Isaiah, manuscript illumination from *The Siegburg Lectionary*, 12th century.

Isaiah’s conviction that Jerusalem would be spared from the Assyrians was rooted in his deep-seated theology regarding the holiness of God and the unique status of Jerusalem as the dwelling place of Yahweh.123

Isaiah believed that God resided on Mt. Zion, within the Temple, and in the person of the Davidic king. This belief was not merely an abstract concept but a "concrete living reality" that formed the basis of his trust in divine protection. During the crisis of 701 BCE, when the Assyrian king Sennacherib besieged the city, Isaiah urged King Hezekiah to resist rather than seek military alliances with nations like Egypt, arguing that security was granted by God alone.234

While Isaiah viewed Assyria as the "rod of God’s anger" used to chastise the nation for its sins, he maintained that God would ultimately protect his city. This faith in Jerusalem's inviolability was further solidified by the city's miraculous deliverance from the Assyrian army, a belief that persisted until the city's eventual fall to the Babylonians a century later.125