Isaiah 37
37
Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah’s Counsel
1When King Hezekiah heard their report, # 2Kg 19:1-34 he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, # Gn 37:34; 2Sm 3:31; 1Kg 21:27; Is 3:24 and went to the Lord’s temple. 2Then he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the court secretary, and the leading priests, who were wearing 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 for 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 Yahweh your God will hear all the words of the Rabshakeh, 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 Yahweh 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 this, ‘The Lord says: Don’t be afraid # Is 7:4; 35:4 because of the words you have heard, which the king of Assyria’s attendants have blasphemed Me with. # 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 Rabshakeh heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, # Jos 10:31-32 he returned and found him fighting against Libnah. # Nm 33:20; Jos 10:29 9The king had heard this about Tirhakah king 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 Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Don’t let your God, whom you trust, 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 Sepharvaim, Hena, or Ivvah? ’ ”
Hezekiah’s Prayer
14Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers, 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:
16Lord of Hosts, God of Israel, who is enthroned above 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 by human hands # Is 2:8,20; 17:8; 31:7; 41:24,29; 44:9-20; 46:6 — wood and stone. # Dt 4:28; 28:36,64; 29:17; Ezk 20:32 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 are the Lord # Jos 4:24; 1Kg 8:60; 20:13; Is 45:3,6 — You alone. # Is 37:16
God’s Answer through Hezekiah
21Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “The Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Because you prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22this is the word the Lord has spoken against him:
Virgin Daughter Zion # Is 1:8; 3:16-17; 4:4; 52:2; 62:11; Lm 2:13
despises you and scorns you:
Daughter Jerusalem shakes her head # Ps 22:7; 109:25; Jb 16:4; Jr 18:16; Lm 2:15
behind your back. # Lit behind you
23Who is it you have mocked # Ps 74:10,18; Is 37:4; Gl 6:7 and blasphemed?
Who have you raised your voice against
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 # Lit by the hand of 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 # DSS add in foreign lands and drank water.
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. # DSS; MT reads rooftops, field before standing grain
28But I know # DSS read know your rising up and 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 Hosts 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
or shoot an arrow there
or come before it with a shield
or build up an assault 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
because of Me # Is 43:25; 48:9,11
and because 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 185,000 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 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.
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Isaiah 37: HCSB
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Isaiah 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.