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
Hezekiah Asks Isaiah for Advice
(2 Kings 19.1-13)
1As soon as Hezekiah heard the news, he tore off his clothes in sorrow and put on sackcloth. Then he went into the temple of the Lord. 2He told Prime Minister Eliakim, Assistant Prime Minister Shebna, and the senior priests to dress in sackcloth and tell me:
3Isaiah, these are difficult and disgraceful times. Our nation is like a woman too weak to give birth, when it's time for her baby to be born. 4Please pray for those of us who are left alive. The king of Assyria sent his army commander to insult the living God. Perhaps the Lord heard what he said and will do something, if you will pray.
5When these leaders came to me, 6I told them that the Lord had this message for Hezekiah:
I am the Lord. Don't worry about the insulting things that have been said about me by these messengers from the king of Assyria. 7I will upset him with rumors about what's happening in his own country. He will go back, and there I will make him die a violent death.
8Meanwhile the commander of the Assyrian forces heard that his king had left the town of Lachish and was now attacking Libnah. So he went there.
9About this same time, the king of Assyria learned that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia#37.9 Ethiopia: See the note at 11.11. was on his way to attack him. Then the king of Assyria sent some messengers with this note for Hezekiah:
10Don't trust your God or be fooled by his promise to defend Jerusalem against me. 11You have heard how we Assyrian kings have completely wiped out other nations. What makes you feel so safe? 12The Assyrian kings before me destroyed the towns of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and everyone from Eden who lived in Telassar. What good did their gods do them? 13The kings of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah have all disappeared.
Hezekiah Prays
(2 Kings 19.14-19)
14After Hezekiah had read the note from the king of Assyria, he took it to the temple and spread it out for the Lord to see. 15Then he prayed:
16 #
Ex 25.22. Lord God All-Powerful of Israel, your throne is above the winged creatures.#37.16 winged creatures: Two winged creatures made of gold were on the top of the sacred chest and were symbols of the Lord's throne on earth (see Exodus 25.18; 2 Samuel 6.2). You created the heavens and the earth, and you alone rule the kingdoms of this world. 17Just look and see how Sennacherib has insulted you, the living God.
18It is true, our Lord, that Assyrian kings have turned nations into deserts. 19They destroyed the idols of wood and stone that the people of those nations had made and worshiped. 20But you are our Lord and our God! We ask you to keep us safe from the Assyrian king. Then everyone in every kingdom on earth will know that you are the only Lord.
Isaiah Gives the Lord's Answer to Hezekiah
(2 Kings 19.20-34)
21-22I went to Hezekiah and told him that the Lord God of Israel had said:
Hezekiah, you prayed to me about King Sennacherib of Assyria.#37.21,22 Hezekiah, you prayed … Assyria: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text. Now this is what I say to that king:
The people of Jerusalem
hate and make fun of you;
they laugh behind your back.
23Sennacherib, you cursed,
shouted and sneered at me,
the holy One of Israel.
24You let your officials
insult me, the Lord.
And here is what you
have said about yourself,
“I led my chariots
to the highest heights
of Lebanon's mountains.
I went deep into its forest,
cutting down the best cedar
and cypress trees.
25I dried up every stream
in the land of Egypt,
and I drank water
from wells I had dug.”
26Sennacherib, now listen
to me, the Lord.
I planned all of this long ago.
And you don't even know
that I alone am the one
who decided that you
would do these things.
I let you make ruins
of fortified cities.
27Their people became weak,
terribly confused.
They were like wild flowers
or like tender young grass
growing on a flat roof
or like a field of grain
before it matures.#37.27 tender young grass … matures: The Standard Hebrew Text; the Dead Sea Scrolls and some Hebrew manuscripts “tender young grass, growing on a flat roof and scorched by the heat.” Many of the houses had roofs made of packed earth. Grass would sometimes grow on the roof, but would die quickly because of the sun and hot winds.
28I know all about you,
even how fiercely angry
you are with me.
29I have seen your pride
and the tremendous hatred
you have for me.
Now I will put a hook
in your nose,
a bit in your mouth,#37.29 I will put … your mouth: This is how the Assyrians treated their prisoners, and now the Lord will treat Sennacherib the same way.
then I will send you back
to where you came from.
30Hezekiah, I will tell you what's going to happen. This year you will eat crops that grow on their own, and the next year you will eat whatever springs up where those crops grew. But the third year, you will plant grain and vineyards, and you will eat what you harvest. 31Those who survive in Judah will be like a vine that puts down deep roots and bears fruit. 32I, the Lord All-Powerful, will see to it that some who live in Jerusalem will survive.
33I promise that the king of Assyria won't get into Jerusalem, or shoot an arrow into the city, or even surround it and prepare to attack. 34As surely as I am the Lord, he will return by the way he came and will never enter Jerusalem. 35I will protect it for the sake of my own honor and because of the promise I made to my servant David.
The Death of King Sennacherib
(2 Kings 19.35-37)
36The Lord sent an angel to the camp of the Assyrians, and he killed 185,000 of them all in one night. The next morning, the camp was full of dead bodies. 37After this, King Sennacherib went back to Assyria and lived in the city of Nineveh. 38One day he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, when his sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, killed him with their swords. They escaped to the land of Ararat, and his son Esarhaddon became king.#37.38 Esarhaddon became king: He ruled Assyria 681–669 b.c.
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.