Isaiah 37
37
Hezekiah Seeks God’s Help
1When Hezekiah heard what the commander had said, he tore his robe, put on sackcloth, and went to the temple of Yahweh. 2And he sent Eliakim, the palace administrator; Shebna, the royal scribe; and the leading priests—all clothed in sackcloth—to the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz. 3They told him, “Here is Hezekiah’s message: ‘This is a day of great anguish, rebuke, and humiliation. We are desperate, as in the day a woman is in heavy labor but has no strength left to give birth. # 37:3 See Isa. 66:8; Rom. 8:19–21. 4Perhaps Lord Yahweh, your God, will take note of all the blasphemous words of the Assyrian commander who was sent by his master, the king of Assyria, to ridicule the living God. And may Lord Yahweh, your God, rebuke him for the words he heard him speak. So therefore, we come to ask you to pray for us, the remnant that still survives.’ ”
5-6Isaiah answered the king’s delegation, saying, “Tell your master these words: ‘Here is what Lord Yahweh says about this matter: “Don’t fear or be frightened by the blasphemous words of the servants of the king of Assyria. 7I will put in him a mindset # 37:7 Or “I will put a spirit [attitude] in him.” that will cause him, when he hears a certain rumor, to flee back to his own country. And when he returns I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.” ’ ”
8Meanwhile, the Assyrian commander returned to the king, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish to lay siege against the city of Libnah. # 37:8 Libnah was one of the thirteen cities allotted to the priests in Israel. See Josh. 21:13–21. 9Now, King Sennacherib had heard a report that the king of Ethiopia, Tirhakah, had allied with Hezekiah and was coming to fight against him. So when he heard it he sent messengers to Hezekiah with this message:
10“Don’t let this God in whom you trust mislead you into thinking that Jerusalem will not fall and be delivered into the hand of the mighty king of Assyria. 11Certainly you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them all. Do you really think you’ll be delivered? 12Did any of their gods come to their rescue? Where were the gods of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden, who were in Tel Azzar when my predecessors destroyed their lands? # 37:12 These are cities of northern Mesopotamia located between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. 13Tell me, where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arphad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, or of Hena or Ivva?” # 37:13 These are cities of Syria.
Hezekiah’s Prayer
14When the messengers delivered Sennacherib’s message to Hezekiah, he read it and immediately went into the temple of Yahweh and spread it out before the Lord. 15And he prayed:
16“O Yahweh, Commander of Angel Armies, the God of Israel, you are enthroned between the wings of the cherubim and you reign supreme as God over all the kingdoms of the world, for you alone are Creator of heaven and earth. 17Please lean down to hear my prayer. Yahweh, open your eyes and see me here calling out to you. Listen carefully to every blasphemous word Sennacherib has sent to ridicule and insult you, the living God.
18“Lord Yahweh, truly the Assyrian kings have annihilated all these nations and conquered their lands. 19They smashed and burned their gods, for they’re not truly gods but mere idols made by human hands shaped from wood and stone. That’s why they could be destroyed. 20So now, our loving God, Yahweh, save us from the Assyrians so that the whole world will know that you alone are Yahweh, Lord God Almighty.”
Isaiah’s Prophecy to Hezekiah
21Then Isaiah, son of Amoz, sent this message to Hezekiah:
“Hear the words of Yahweh, the God of Israel: ‘Because you prayed to me about the taunts of Sennacherib, king of Assyria, 22this is what I, Yahweh, decree concerning him:
“ ‘The virgin daughter of Zion
despises you and ridicules you.
My daughter, Jerusalem,
tosses her head back and makes fun of you!
23Whom do you think you’re mocking and blaspheming?
Against whom do you raise your voice?
And whom have you looked down upon in your arrogance?
None other than me, the Holy One of Israel!
24You sent your messengers to mock the Lord.
You boast, “My vast number of chariots
has taken me up the highest mountains,
to the heights of Lebanon’s forests.
I cut down its loftiest cedars, its choicest cypresses.
I ascended its highest peak and claimed its great forests.
25I dug wells and drank foreign water. # 37:25 As translated from the Dead Sea scroll 1QIsaa. See 2 Kings 19:24.
The feet of my armies trampled the Nile delta dry.”
26“ ‘Have you not learned that I planned all this long ago?
Yes, from ages past I planned it, and now I fulfill it,
that you would conquer fortified cities
and turn them into piles of stones.
27The inhabitants were frightened and ashamed.
They became as fragile as weeds and tender grass,
as short-lived as the grass that grows on the rooftop
and is scorched before the east wind. # 37:27 As translated from the Dead Sea scroll 1QIsaa.
28I know where you live, every movement you make,
all that you do, and your rage against me.
29I have heard your arrogant words,
and because you rage against me,
I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth,
and I will make you return by the way you came.
30“ ‘Hezekiah, this will be a sign for you: This year you will eat only grain that grows of itself. Next year you will eat what comes of that. Then, in the third year, life will be normal again. You will sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 31Judah’s remnant will flourish again, sending deep roots into the ground and bearing luscious fruit above, 32for a remnant will go out from Mount Zion and Jerusalem. The fiery passion of Yahweh, Commander of Angel Armies, will accomplish this!
33“ ‘Therefore, here is what I, Yahweh, have to say about the king of Assyria: He will neither enter this city, nor shoot even one arrow here, nor raise a warrior’s shield, nor build a siege ramp against Jerusalem. 34I declare that by the way he came, by that same way he will leave. He will not set foot in the city. 35I promise to defend this city and protect it, for the sake of my own honor and for the sake of David, my loving servant.’ ”
God’s Miraculous Deliverance
36That night the angel of Yahweh came into the Assyrian camp and slaughtered 185,000 soldiers. When morning dawned, there were only dead bodies in the enemy’s camp! 37Sennacherib, the great king of Assyria, left, returning the same way he came, and retreated to Nineveh, the Assyrian capital. 38Then one day, as he was worshiping in the temple of his god, Nisroch, his sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, entered the temple and killed him with swords. They escaped into the land of Ararat and the king’s son Esar-haddon succeeded him. # 37:38 See 2 Kings 19:35–37; 2 Chron. 32:21–22.
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Isaiah 37: TPT
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Learn More About The Passion TranslationIsaiah 37
37
The King Asks Isaiah's Advice
(2 Kgs 19.1–7)
1As soon as King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes in grief, put on sackcloth, and went to the Temple of the LORD. 2He sent Eliakim, the official in charge of the palace, Shebna, the court secretary, and the senior priests to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. They also were wearing sackcloth. 3This is the message which he told them to give to Isaiah: “Today is a day of suffering; we are being punished and are in disgrace. We are like a woman who is ready to give birth, but is too weak to do it. 4The Assyrian emperor has sent his chief official to insult the living God. May the LORD your God hear these insults and punish those who spoke them. So pray to God for those of our people who survive.”
5When Isaiah received King Hezekiah's message, 6he sent back this answer: “The LORD tells you not to let the Assyrians frighten you by their claims that he cannot save you. 7The LORD will cause the emperor to hear a rumour that will make him go back to his own country, and the LORD will have him killed there.”
The Assyrians Send Another Threat
(2 Kgs 19.8–19)
8The Assyrian official learnt that the emperor had left Lachish and was fighting against the nearby city of Libnah; so he went there to consult him. 9Word reached the Assyrians that the Egyptian army, led by King Tirhakah of Ethiopia#37.9 Ethiopia: See Word List., was coming to attack them. When the emperor heard this, he sent a letter to King Hezekiah 10of Judah to say to him, “The god you are trusting in has told you that you will not fall into my hands, but don't let that deceive you. 11You have heard what an Assyrian emperor does to any country he decides to destroy. Do you think that you can escape? 12My ancestors destroyed the cities of Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph, and killed the people of Betheden who lived in Telassar, and none of their gods could save them. 13Where are the kings of the cities of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?”
14King Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went to the Temple, placed the letter there in the presence of the LORD, 15and prayed, 16#Ex 25.22“Almighty LORD, God of Israel, enthroned above the winged creatures, you alone are God, ruling all the kingdoms of the world. You created the earth and the sky. 17Now, LORD, hear us and look at what is happening to us. Listen to all the things that Sennacherib is saying to insult you, the living God. 18We all know, LORD, that the emperors of Assyria have destroyed many nations, made their lands desolate, 19and burnt up their gods — which were no gods at all, only images of wood and stone made by human hands. 20Now, LORD our God, rescue us from the Assyrians, so that all the nations of the world will know that you alone are God.”
Isaiah's Message to the King
(2 Kgs 19.20–37)
21Then Isaiah sent a message telling King Hezekiah that in answer to the king's prayer 22the LORD had said, “The city of Jerusalem laughs at you, Sennacherib, and despises you. 23Whom do you think you have been insulting and ridiculing? You have been disrespectful to me, the holy God of Israel. 24You sent your servants to boast to me that with all your chariots you had conquered the highest mountains of Lebanon. You boasted that there you cut down the tallest cedars and the finest cypress trees, and that you reached the deepest parts of the forests. 25You boasted that you dug wells and drank water in foreign lands, and that the feet of your soldiers tramped the River Nile dry.
26“Have you never heard that I planned all this long ago? And now I have carried it out. I gave you the power to turn fortified cities into piles of rubble. 27The people who lived there were powerless; they were frightened and stunned. They were like grass in a field or weeds growing on a roof when the hot east wind blasts them.#37.27 Probable text when… them; Hebrew blasted before they are grown.
28“But I know everything about you, what you do and where you go. I know how you rage against me. 29I have received the report of that rage and that pride of yours, and now I will put a hook through your nose and a bit in your mouth and will take you back by the road on which you came.”
30Then Isaiah said to King Hezekiah, “This is a sign of what will happen. This year and next you will have only wild grain to eat, but the following year you will be able to sow your corn and harvest it, and plant vines and eat grapes. 31Those in Judah who survive will flourish like plants that send roots deep into the ground and produce fruit. 32There will be people in Jerusalem and on Mount Zion who will survive, because the LORD Almighty is determined to make this happen.
33“This is what the LORD has said about the Assyrian emperor: ‘He will not enter this city or shoot a single arrow against it. No soldiers with shields will come near the city, and no siege mounds will be built round it. 34He will go back by the road on which he came, without entering this city. I, the LORD, have spoken. 35I will defend this city and protect it, for the sake of my own honour and because of the promise I made to my servant David.’ ”
36An angel of the LORD went to the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 soldiers. At dawn the next day there they lay, all dead! 37Then the Assyrian emperor Sennacherib withdrew and returned to Nineveh. 38One day when he was worshipping in the temple of his god Nisroch, two of his sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, killed him with their swords and then escaped to the land of Ararat. Another of his sons, Esarhaddon, succeeded him as emperor.
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Good News Bible. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.