God uses this question to expose Sennacherib’s arrogance and make him confront the gravity of his blasphemy. By forcing the king to acknowledge his target, God reveals that Sennacherib’s threats against Jerusalem were actually defiance against the Holy One of Israel himself.

Sennacherib made no verbal response recorded in Scripture. God immediately proceeded to pronounce judgment, declaring that the king would return by the way he came and never enter Jerusalem (Isaiah 37:29, 33-34). That night, the angel of the LORD struck down 185,000 Assyrian soldiers, forcing Sennacherib’s humiliating retreat to Nineveh, where his own sons later assassinated him (Isaiah 37:36-38).

This question strips away Sennacherib’s delusions of grandeur and forces him to face reality. The Hebrew structure intensifies through repetition, whom have you mocked, against whom have you raised your voice, against whom have you lifted your eyes, building to the devastating answer: the Holy One of Israel. God doesn’t need information; he uses questions to penetrate hardened hearts and expose hidden attitudes. Sennacherib had treated Yahweh like any other tribal deity who could be intimidated and dismissed. By framing his rebuke as a question, God invites the king to confront his own folly before pronouncing judgment. The title Holy One of Israel appears throughout Isaiah’s prophecy, emphasizing God’s transcendent purity and his covenant relationship with his people, the very things Sennacherib’s blasphemy had violated.