Isaiah 37–39

And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord. ²And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth, unto ^aIsaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. ³And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is ^ba day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for ^cthe children are come to ^dthe birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. ⁴It may be the Lord thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which the Lord thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for ^ddthe remnant that is left. ⁵So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah. ⁶And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say unto your master, Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. ⁷Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and ^ehe shall hear a rumour, and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.

⁸So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish. ⁹And ^fhe heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He is come forth to make war with thee. And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. ¹¹Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by destroying them utterly; and shalt thou be delivered? ¹²Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Telassar? ¹³Where is the king of ^gHamath, and the king of ^gArphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?

¹⁴And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up unto the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. ¹⁵And Hezekiah prayed unto the Lord, saying, ¹⁶O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: ^hthou hast made heaven and earth. ¹⁷ⁱIncline thine ear, O Lord, and hear; open thine eyes, O Lord, and see: and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent to reproach the living God. ¹⁸Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations, and their countries, ¹⁹and have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them. ²⁰Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, ^jthat all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord, even thou only.

²¹Then ^aIsaiah the son of Amoz sent unto Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria: ²²this is the word which the Lord hath spoken concerning him;

The virgin, ^kthe daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn;

The daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.

²³Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed?

And against whom hast thou exalted thy voice,

And lifted up thine eyes on high?

Even against the Holy One of Israel.

²⁴By thy servants hast thou reproached the Lord, and hast said,

By the multitude of my chariots am I come up

To the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon;

And I will cut down the tall ^mcedars thereof, and the choice ^mfir trees thereof:

And I will enter into the height of his border, and ⁿthe forest of his Carmel.

²⁵I have digged, and drunk water;

And with the sole of my feet have I dried up all ^othe rivers of the ^obesieged places.

²⁶Hast thou not heard long ago, how ^pI have done it;

And of ancient times, that ^pI have formed it?

Now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste

^qDefenced cities into ruinous heaps.

²⁷Therefore their inhabitants were of small power,

^rThey were dismayed and confounded:

They were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb,

As the grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up.

²⁸But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in,

And thy rage against me.

²⁹Because thy rage against me, and thy ^stumult, is come up into mine ears,

Therefore will I put my hook in thy nose, and ^tmy bridle in thy lips,

And I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.

³⁰And this shall be a sign unto thee,

Ye shall eat this year such as groweth of itself;

And the second year that which springeth of the same:

And ^uin the third year sow ye, and reap,

And plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof.

³¹And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah

Shall again ^wtake root downward, and bear fruit upward.

³²For out of Jerusalem shall go forth ^xa remnant,

And they that escape out of mount Zion:

The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.

³³Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria,

^yHe shall not come into this city,

^zNor shoot an arrow there,

Nor come before it with shields,

Nor ^acast a bank against it.

³⁴By the way that he came, by the same shall he return,

And shall not come into this city, saith the Lord.

³⁵For ^bI will defend this city to save it

For mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.

^36cThen the angel of the Lord went forth, and ^dsmote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. ³⁷So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and ^ewent and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. ³⁸And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Armenia: and Esar-haddon his son reigned in his stead.

XXXVIII.^aIn those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And ^bIsaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live. ²Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and ^cprayed unto the Lord, ³and said, Remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. ⁴Then came the word of the Lord to Isaiah, saying, ⁵Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years. ⁶And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and ^dI will defend this city. ⁷And this shall be a sign unto thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that he hath spoken; ^8ebehold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.

⁹The writing of Hezekiah, king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness:

^10fI said, in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to ^gthe gates of the grave:

I am deprived of the residue of my years.

¹¹I said, I shall not see ^hthe Lord, even ^hthe Lord, ⁱin the land of the living:

I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.

¹²Mine age is departed, and is removed from me ^kas a shepherd’s tent:

I have cut off ^llike a weaver my life: ^mhe will cut me off with pining sickness:

ⁿFrom day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.

¹³I reckoned ⁿtill morning, that, ^oas a lion, so will he break all my bones:

ⁿFrom day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.

¹⁴Like ^pa crane or ^pa swallow, so did I ^qchatter:

I did ^qrmourn as a dove:

^sMine eyes fail with looking upward:

O Lord, I am oppressed; ^tundertake for me.

¹⁵What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it:

I shall ^ugo softly all my years ^vin the bitterness of my soul.

¹⁶O Lord, ^wby these things men live,

And in all these things is the life of my spirit:

So wilt thou recover me, and ^wmake me to live.

¹⁷Behold, for peace I had great bitterness:

But thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption:

For ^xthou hast cast all my sins ^ybehind thy back.

¹⁸For ^zthe grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee:

^aThey that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.

^19bThe living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day:

^cThe father to the children shall make known thy truth.

²⁰The Lord was ready to save me:

Therefore we will sing my songs to ^dthe stringed instruments

All the days of our life in the house of the Lord.

²¹For ^eIsaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall recover. ^22fHezekiah also had said, What is the sign ^gthat I shall go up to the house of the Lord?

XXXIX.^aAt that time Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah: for he had heard that he had been sick, and was recovered. ²And Hezekiah was glad of them, and shewed them the house of his precious things, ^bthe silver, and the gold, and ^bbthe spices, and ^bbthe precious ointment, and all the house of his armour, and ^ball that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not. ³Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men? and from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They are come ^cfrom a far country unto me, even from Babylon. ⁴Then said he, What have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All that is in mine house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shewed them. ⁵Then said Isaiah to…