Isaiah 37-39

1On hearing this report, King Hezekiah tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and entered the house of the LORD.

2And he sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz

3to tell him, “This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace; for children have come to the point of birth, but there is no strength to deliver them.

4Perhaps the LORD your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to defy the living God, and He will rebuke him for the words that the LORD your God has heard. Therefore lift up a prayer for the remnant that still survives.”

5So the servants of King Hezekiah went to Isaiah,

6who replied, “Tell your master that this is what the LORD says: ‘Do not be afraid of the words you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me.

7Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land, where I will cause him to fall by the sword.’”

8When the Rabshakeh heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.

9Now Sennacherib had been warned about Tirhakah king of Cush: “He has set out to fight against you.” On hearing this, Sennacherib sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

10“Give this message to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you by saying that Jerusalem will not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.

11Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other countries, devoting them to destruction. Will you then be spared?

12Did the gods of the nations destroyed by my fathers rescue those nations—the gods of Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph, and of the people of Eden in Telassar?

13Where are the kings of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”

14So Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers, read it, and went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD.

15And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD:

16“O LORD of Hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth.

17Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see. Listen to all the words that Sennacherib has sent to defy the living God.

18Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all these countries and their lands.

19They have cast their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods, but only wood and stone—the work of human hands.

20And now, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God.”

21Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to Me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria,

22this 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.

23Whom have you taunted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel!

24Through your servants you have taunted the Lord, and you have said: “With my many chariots I have ascended to the heights of the mountains, to the remote peaks of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the finest of its cypresses. I have reached its farthest heights, the densest of its forests.

25I have dug wells and drunk foreign waters. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.”

26Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it; in days of old I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, that you should crush fortified cities into piles of rubble.

27Therefore their inhabitants, devoid of power, are dismayed and ashamed. They are like plants in the field, tender green shoots, grass on the rooftops, scorched before it is grown.

28But I know your sitting down, your going out and coming in, and your raging against Me.

29Because your rage and arrogance against Me have reached My ears, I will put My hook in your nose and My bit in your mouth; I will send you back the way you came.’

30And this will be a sign to you, O Hezekiah: This year you will eat what grows on its own, and in the second year what springs from the same. But in the third year you will sow and reap; you will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

31And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root below and bear fruit above.

32For a remnant will go forth from Jerusalem, and survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will accomplish this.

33So this is what the LORD says about the king of Assyria: ‘He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow into it. He will not come before it with a shield or build up a siege ramp against it.

34He will go back the way he came, and he will not enter this city,’ declares the LORD.

35‘I will defend this city and save it for My own sake and for the sake of My servant David.’”

36Then the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!

37So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.

38One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer put him to the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. And his son Esar-haddon reigned in his place.

1In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.’”

2Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD,

3saying, “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion; I have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

4And the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying,

5“Go and tell Hezekiah that this is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: ‘I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.

6And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.

7This will be a sign to you from the LORD that He will do what He has promised:

8I will make the sun’s shadow that falls on the stairway of Ahaz go back ten steps.’” So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had descended.

9This is a writing by Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:

10I said, “In the prime of my life I must go through the gates of Sheol and be deprived of the remainder of my years.”

11I said, “I will never again see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living; I will no longer look on mankind with those who dwell in this world.

12My dwelling has been picked up and removed from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up my life like a weaver; He cuts me off from the loom; from day until night You make an end of me.

13I composed myself until the morning. Like a lion He breaks all my bones; from day until night You make an end of me.

14I chirp like a swallow or crane; I moan like a dove. My eyes grow weak as I look upward. O Lord, I am oppressed; be my security.”

15What can I say? He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done this. I will walk slowly all my years because of the anguish of my soul.

16O Lord, by such things men live, and in all of them my spirit finds life. You have restored me to health and have let me live.

17Surely for my own welfare I had such great anguish; but Your love has delivered me from the pit of oblivion, for You have cast all my sins behind Your back.

18For Sheol cannot thank You; Death cannot praise You. Those who descend to the Pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness.

19The living, only the living, can thank You, as I do today; fathers will tell their children about Your faithfulness.

20The LORD will save me; we will play songs on stringed instruments all the days of our lives in the house of the LORD.

21Now Isaiah had said, “Prepare a lump of pressed figs and apply it to the boil, and he will recover.”

22And Hezekiah had asked, “What will be the sign that I will go up to the house of the LORD?”

1At that time Merodach-baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard about Hezekiah’s illness and recovery.

2And Hezekiah welcomed the envoys gladly and showed them what was in his treasure house—the silver, the gold, the spices, and the precious oil, as well as his entire armory—all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his palace or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.

3Then the prophet Isaiah went to King Hezekiah and asked, “Where did those men come from, and what did they say to you?” “They came to me from a distant land,” Hezekiah replied, “from Babylon.”

4“What have they seen in your palace?” Isaiah asked. “They have seen everything in my palace,” answered Hezekiah. “There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.”

5Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD of Hosts:

6The time will surely come when everything in your palace and all that your fathers have stored up until this day will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD.

7And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, will be taken away to be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

8But Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “At least there will be peace and security in my lifetime.”