Isaiah 37
37
Chapter 37
Hezekiah sends a message to Isaiah
1When King Hezekiah heard the report of his officers, he tore his clothes. Then he put on rough sackcloth and he went into the Lord's temple. 2He sent Eliakim, Shebna and the leaders of the priests to Amoz's son, Isaiah the prophet. Eliakim was the most important officer in the king's palace. Shebna was a government officer. They were all wearing sackcloth. 3They told Hezekiah's message to Isaiah:
‘This is a time of great trouble. Assyria has insulted us to make us ashamed. Our nation is like a woman who is ready to give birth, but she is too weak to push the child out. 4The Assyrian officer has brought a message from his king to insult the God who lives for ever. Maybe the Lord your God has heard that message. He should punish the officer for his wicked message. So please pray for the people who remain in Jerusalem.’
5When King Hezekiah's officers told their message to Isaiah, 6Isaiah said to them, ‘Tell your master that the Lord says this: “Do not let the words that you have heard make you afraid. The servants of the king of Assyria have insulted me, the Lord. 7Listen to me! I will put a spirit into the king of Assyria's mind. He will hear a report which will cause him to return to his own country. There, in his own land, I will cause someone to kill him with a sword.” ’
8At that time, the king of Assyria had left Lachish city. When the Assyrian officer heard that news, he left Jerusalem. He went to meet the king at Libnah, where the king was now fighting a battle. 9Then the king of Assyria heard a report about Tirhakah, the king of Ethiopia. People told him, ‘He has brought his army from Ethiopia to fight against you.’
When the king of Assyria heard that news, he sent another message to Hezekiah in Jerusalem. 10This was his message to King Hezekiah of Judah: ‘You are hoping that your God will help you. Your God may say that the king of Assyria will not destroy Jerusalem. But do not let him deceive you. 11You have heard how the kings of Assyria have completely destroyed all other countries. So do not think that your God will rescue you. 12The gods of those other countries did not save them. Our kings destroyed the nations of Gozan, Haran and Rezeph. They killed the people of Eden who lived in Tel Assar. 13The kings of Hamath and Arpad have gone. The king of Sepharvaim city has gone. The kings of Hena and Ivvah have also gone.’
14When Hezekiah received the letter with this message, he read it. Then he went up to the Lord's temple. He put the letter there, in front of the Lord. 15Hezekiah prayed to the Lord. He said:
16‘Lord Almighty, you are Israel's God. You sit on your throne between the cherubs. #37:16 The Covenant Box in the temple had images of cherubs over it. Only you are the God who rules all the kingdoms in the world. You have made the heavens and the earth. 17Lord, please listen carefully to me. Lord, look carefully at this letter. Listen to Sennacherib's message. He is insulting you, the God who lives for ever. 18It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all these people and their lands. 19They threw the gods of these nations into the fire. Those idols are not really gods. People used wood and stone to make them. So the Assyrians could destroy them. 20So now, Lord, you are our God! Save us from the power of Sennacherib! Then all the kingdoms in the world will know that you alone are the Lord.’
God answers Hezekiah
21Then Amoz's son, Isaiah, sent this message to Hezekiah: ‘The Lord, Israel's God, says, “You have prayed to me about Sennacherib, the king of Assyria.” 22This is the Lord's reply. The Lord says this about King Sennacherib:
“The holy people of Zion laugh at you!
They think that you are useless.
Yes, the people of Jerusalem shake their heads
as you run away.
23Who do you think it is that you have insulted?
Who have you shouted at?
Who have you looked at so proudly?
The answer is the Holy God of Israel!
24You have sent your servants
to insult the Lord God.
You have said, ‘I have taken all my chariots
and I have gone up high mountains,
the highest mountains in Lebanon.
I have cut down its tall cedar trees,
and I have cut down its best pine trees.
I went up to its highest places,
and I went far into its forests.
25I dug wells and they gave me water to drink.
My army marched through all the rivers in Egypt,
and the rivers became dry.’
26You said that, but now listen to this! #37:26 The Lord continues to speak his message to King Sennacherib.
You must surely have heard it already.
I decided what to do a long time ago!
Now I am causing it to happen.
I decided that you would destroy strong cities
so that they became heaps of stones.
27The people of those cities have no power.
They are afraid and they are confused.
They are like plants in a field,
that cannot live for a long time.
They are like fresh green grass,
or grass that grows on the roof of a house.
When a hot wind blows on them,
it burns them and they die.
28I know everything about you.
I know where you live.
I know when you go out.
And I know when you return home.
I know how much you shout against me,
when you are angry.
29Yes, you do shout at me!
And I have heard all your proud noise.
So I will put my hook in your nose.
I will tie a rope to your mouth.
Then I will pull you back home
by the same way that you came.”
30King Hezekiah, this is how you will know that I have spoken a true message from the Lord. #37:30 Isaiah has told Hezekiah about the Lord's message to King Sennacherib. Now he speaks to King Hezekiah himself. This year, you will eat crops that grow by themselves. And next year you will eat what grows from the same seeds. But in the third year you will plant seeds for yourselves, and they will give you a harvest of crops. You will plant vines again and you will eat grapes from them. 31The people who remain in Judah will be like strong plants that put their roots down into the ground. Their branches will give lots of fruit.
32A small number of people will still be alive in Jerusalem. They will leave Mount Zion and they will go to other places. The great love that the Lord Almighty has for his people will cause that to happen!
33This is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:
“His army will not come into this city.
His soldiers will not shoot any arrows here.
They will not attack the city as they hold their shields.
They will not build heaps of earth against the city's walls.
34No! The king will return home by the way that he came.
He will not come into this city.”
That is what the Lord says.
35“I will make this city safe and I will rescue it.
I will do that to show that I am great.
I promised my servant David that I would do it.
So I will do it.” ’
The Lord destroys Assyria's army
36Then the Lord's angel went to the camp of the Assyrian army. He killed 185,000 of their soldiers. When people got up in the morning, they saw all those dead bodies! 37So King Sennacherib of Assyria took his army away. He returned to Assyria and he lived in Nineveh.
38One day, Sennacherib was worshipping his god Nisrok, in Nisrok's temple. Two of Sennacherib's sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, went in and they killed him with their swords. #37:38 This happened about 20 years after verse 37 happened. Then they ran away to the region of Ararat. Sennacherib's son, Esarhaddon, now ruled Assyria as king.
Currently Selected:
Isaiah 37: EASY
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
MissionAssist 2018
Isaiah 37
37
Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah’s Counsel
1When King Hezekiah heard their report,#2Kg 19:1–34 he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth,#Gn 37:34; 2Sm 3:31; 1Kg 21:27; Is 3:24 and went to the Lord’s temple. 2He sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the court secretary, and the leading priests, who were covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. 3They said to him, “This is what Hezekiah says: ‘Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace.#Is 22:5; 26:16; 33:2; Nah 1:7; Hab 3:16 It is as if children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to deliver them.#Is 26:17–18; 66:9; Hs 13:13 4Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all the words of the royal spokesman, whom his master the king of Assyria sent to mock the living God,#Dt 5:26; 1Sm 17:26,36; Jr 10:10 and will rebuke him for the words that the Lord your God has heard. Therefore offer a prayer for the surviving remnant.’”#Is 1:9; 46:3
5So the servants of King Hezekiah went to Isaiah, 6who said to them, “Tell your master, ‘The Lord says this: Don’t be afraid#Is 7:4; 35:4 because of the words you have heard, with which the king of Assyria’s attendants have blasphemed me.#Ps 44:7,13–16; Is 52:5; Rm 2:24 7I am about to put a spirit#Nm 5:14; Is 19:14; Hs 4:12; Zch 13:2; 2Tm 1:7 in him and he will hear a rumor and return to his own land, where I will cause him to fall by the sword.’”#Is 37:36–38
Sennacherib’s Letter
8When the royal spokesman heard that the king of Assyria had pulled out of Lachish,#Jos 10:31–32 he left and found him fighting against Libnah.#Nm 33:20; Jos 10:29 9The king had heard concerning King Tirhakah of Cush,#Is 18:1; 20:5 “He has set out to fight against you.” So when he heard this, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10“Say this to King Hezekiah of Judah: ‘Don’t let your God, on whom you rely, deceive you#Is 36:14–15 by promising that Jerusalem won’t be handed over to the king of Assyria. 11Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries: they completely destroyed them. Will you be rescued? 12Did the gods of the nations#Is 36:18 that my predecessors destroyed rescue them — Gozan,#2Kg 17:6; 18:11 Haran,#Gn 11:31; 12:1–4; Ac 7:2 Rezeph, and the Edenites in Telassar? 13Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of#37:13 Or king of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena, or Ivvah? ’”
Hezekiah’s Prayer
14Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers’ hands, read it, then went up to the Lord’s temple and spread it out before the Lord.#Dt 22:17; 1Kg 8:22; Ezk 2:10 15Then Hezekiah prayed#2Ch 32:20 to the Lord:
16 Lord of Armies, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim,#Ex 25:22; Nm 7:89; 1Sm 4:4; 2Sm 6:2; Ps 80:1; 99:1 you are God#Dt 10:17; 2Sm 7:28; Ps 86:10; 90:2; 136:2–3 — you alone#1Kg 8:39; Neh 9:6; Ps 4:8; 83:18; 86:10; Rv 15:4 — of all the kingdoms of the earth.#2Ch 36:20; Ps 68:32; Rv 11:15 You made the heavens and the earth.#Ex 20:11; Neh 9:6; Ps 146:6; Ac 4:24 17Listen closely, Lord, and hear;#2Ch 6:40; Ps 17:6; Dn 9:18 open your eyes, Lord, and see.#Is 42:5; 45:12; Jr 10:12 Hear all the words that Sennacherib has sent to mock the living God.#Is 37:4 18Lord, it is true that the kings of Assyria have devastated all these countries and their lands. 19They have thrown their gods into the fire, for they were not gods#Dt 32:17; 2Ch 13:9; Jr 2:11; 5:7; 16:20; Hs 8:6; Ac 19:26; Gl 4:8 but made from wood and stone#Dt 4:28; 28:36,64; 29:17; Ezk 20:32 by human hands.#Is 2:8,20; 17:8; 31:7; 41:24,29; 44:9–20; 46:6 So they have destroyed them. 20Now, Lord our God, save us from his power so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, Lord, are God#37:20 are God supplied for clarity; see v. 16#Jos 4:24; 1Kg 8:60; 20:13; Is 45:3,6 — you alone.#Is 37:16
God’s Answer through Isaiah
21Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “The Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘Because you prayed to me about King Sennacherib of Assyria, 22this is the word the Lord has spoken against him:
Virgin Daughter Zion#Lm 2:13; Is 1:8; 3:16–17; 4:4; 52:2; 62:11
despises you and scorns you;
Daughter Jerusalem shakes her head#Jb 16:4; Ps 22:7; 109:25; Jr 18:16; Lm 2:15
behind your back.
23Who is it you have mocked#Ps 74:10,18; Is 37:4; Gl 6:7 and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes in pride?#Is 2:11; 5:15,21
Against the Holy One of Israel!#Gn 12:3; Ex 23:22
24You have mocked the Lord through your servants.
You have said, “With my many chariots#Ex 14:26–28; 15:4,19; Dt 20:1; Jos 11:4–9; 2Ch 16:8; Ps 68:17
I have gone up to the heights of the mountains,
to the far recesses of Lebanon.
I cut down its tallest cedars,
its choice cypress trees.
I came to its distant heights,
its densest forest.
25I dug wells and drank water in foreign lands.#37:25 DSS, 2Kg 19:24; MT omits in foreign lands
I dried up all the streams of Egypt
with the soles of my feet.”#Dt 11:10; 1Kg 20:10
26Have you not heard?#Is 40:21,28
I designed it long ago;
I planned it in days gone by.#Is 5:19; 10:5–6; 14:24–26; 22:11; 46:11; Jr 18:11; Ac 2:23; 4:27–28; 1Pt 2:8
I have now brought it to pass,
and you have crushed fortified cities#Is 34:13
into piles of rubble.
27Their inhabitants have become powerless,
dismayed, and ashamed.
They are plants of the field,
tender grass,
grass on the rooftops,
blasted by the east wind.#37:27 DSS; MT reads rooftops, field before standing grain
28But I know your sitting down,
your going out and your coming in,#Ps 139:1
and your raging against me.
29Because your raging against me
and your arrogance have reached my ears,#Is 10:12
I will put my hook in your nose#Ezk 19:9; 29:4; 38:4
and my bit in your mouth;#Is 30:28
I will make you go back
the way you came.
30“‘This will be the sign for you:#Ex 3:12; 1Sm 2:34; 1Kg 13:3; Is 7:14; 38:7; Jr 44:29; Lk 2:12 This year you will eat what grows on its own, and in the second year what grows from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 31The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root#Is 27:6 downward and bear fruit upward. 32For a remnant#Ezr 9:14; Is 10:20–22 will go out from Jerusalem, and survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish this.’#2Kg 19:31; Is 9:7; 59:17; Jl 2:18; Zch 1:14
33“Therefore, this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:
He will not enter this city,
shoot an arrow here,
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.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
35I will defend this city and rescue it
for my sake#Is 43:25; 48:9,11
and for the sake of my servant David.”#1Kg 11:13,32–38; 2Kg 20:6; Ezk 34:23
Defeat and Death of Sennacherib
36Then#2Kg 19:35–37; 2Ch 32:21 the angel of the Lord#Gn 16:7–11; Ex 3:2; Nm 22:22–35; Jdg 6:11–12; 2Sm 24:16; Ps 34:7 went out and struck down one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies! 37So King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and left. He returned home and lived in Nineveh.#Gn 10:11; Jnh 1:2; 3:3; 4:11; Zph 2:13
38One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat.#Gn 8:4; Jr 51:27 Then his son Esar-haddon#Ezr 4:2 became king in his place.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers