Isaiah 37–39

37TH CHAPTER

¹When King Hezekiah heard the message, he tore his clothes in grief, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the Lord’s temple. ²Then he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the scribe, and the leaders of the priests, clothed in sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz. 

³They said to him, “This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day filled with misery, punishment, and disgrace. We are like a woman who is about to give birth but doesn’t have the strength to do it. ⁴The Lord your God may have heard the words of the field commander. His master, the king of Assyria, sent him to defy the living God. The Lord your God may punish him because of the message that the Lord your God heard. Pray for the few people who are left.” 

⁵So King Hezekiah’s men went to Isaiah. ⁶Isaiah answered them, “Say this to your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: Don’t be afraid of the message that you heard when the Assyrian king’s assistants slandered me. ⁷I’m going to put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own country. I’ll have him assassinated in his own country.’ ” 

⁸The field commander returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah. He had heard that the king left Lachish. ⁹Now, Sennacherib heard that King Tirhakah of Sudan was coming to fight him. 

When he heard this, he again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰“Tell King Hezekiah of Judah, ‘Don’t let the god whom you trust deceive you by saying that Jerusalem will not be put under the control of the king of Assyria. ¹¹You heard what the kings of Assyria did to all countries, how they totally destroyed them. Will you be rescued? ¹²Did the gods of the nations which my ancestors destroyed rescue Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? ¹³Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the cities of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’ ” 

¹⁴Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers, read it, and went to the Lord’s temple. He spread it out in front of the Lord ¹⁵and prayed to the Lord, ¹⁶“Lord of Armies, God of Israel, you are enthroned over the angels.^aYou alone are God of the kingdoms of the world. You made heaven and earth. ¹⁷Turn your ear toward me, Lord, and listen. Open your eyes, Lord, and see. Listen to the entire message that Sennacherib sent to defy the living God. ¹⁸It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have leveled every country.^b19They have thrown the gods from these countries into fires because these gods aren’t real gods. They’re only wooden and stone statues made by human hands. So the Assyrians have destroyed them. ²⁰Now, Lord our God, rescue us from Assyria’s control so that all the kingdoms on earth will know that you alone are the Lord.” 

Isaiah’s Prophecy against King Sennacherib of Assyria—2 Kings 19:20–37

²¹Then Isaiah, son of Amoz, sent a message to Hezekiah, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: You prayed to me about King Sennacherib of Assyria. ²²This is the message that the Lord speaks to him, 

‘My dear people in Zion despise you and laugh at you. 

My people in Jerusalem shake their heads behind your back. 

²³Whom are you defying and slandering? 

Against whom are you shouting? 

Who are you looking at so arrogantly? 

It is the Holy One of Israel! 

²⁴Through your servants you defy the Lord and say, 

“With my many chariots I’ll ride up the high mountains, 

up the slopes of Lebanon. 

I’ll cut down its tallest cedars and its finest cypresses. 

I’ll come to its most distant heights 

and its most fertile forests. 

²⁵I’ll dig wells and drink water. 

I’ll dry up all the streams of Egypt 

with the trampling of my feet.” 

²⁶“ ‘Haven’t you heard? I did this long ago. 

I planned it in the distant past. 

Now I make it happen so that you will turn fortified cities 

into piles of rubble. 

²⁷Those who live in these cities are weak, discouraged, and ashamed. 

They will be like plants in the field, 

like fresh, green grass on the roofs, 

dried up by the east wind. 

²⁸I know when you ⸤get up⸥ and sit down, 

when you go out and come in, 

and how you rage against me. 

²⁹Since you rage against me and your boasting has reached my ears, 

I will put my hook in your nose 

and my bridle in your mouth. 

I will make you go back the way you came. 

³⁰“ ‘And this will be a sign for you, Hezekiah: You will eat what grows by itself this year, and the next year you will eat what comes up by itself. But in the third year you will plant and harvest, plant vineyards, and eat what is produced. ³¹Those few people from the nation of Judah who escape will again take root and produce crops. ³²Those few people will go out from Jerusalem, and those who escape will go out from Mount Zion. The Lord of Armies is determined to do this.’ 

³³“This is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria: 

He will never come into this city, 

shoot an arrow here, 

hold a shield in front of it, 

or put up dirt ramps to attack it. 

³⁴He will go back the way he came, 

and he won’t come into this city,” 

declares the Lord of Armies. 

³⁵“I will shield this city to rescue it for my sake 

and for the sake of my servant David.” 

³⁶The Lord’s angel went out and killed 185,000 ⸤soldiers⸥ in the Assyrian camp. When the Judeans got up early in the morning, they saw all the corpses. 

³⁷Then King Sennacherib of Assyria left. He went home to Nineveh and stayed there. ³⁸While he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, assassinated him and escaped to the land of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon succeeded him as king. 

38TH CHAPTER

Hezekiah’s Illness—2 Kings 20:1–11; 2 Chronicles 32:24

¹In those days Hezekiah became sick and was about to die. The prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, came to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: Give final instructions to your household, because you’re about to die. You won’t get well.” 

²Hezekiah turned to the wall and prayed to the Lord. ³“Please, Lord, remember how I’ve lived faithfully and sincerely in your presence. I’ve done what you consider right.” And he cried bitterly. 

⁴Then the Lord spoke his word to Isaiah, ⁵“Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘This is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: I’ve heard your prayer. I’ve seen your tears. I’m going to give you 15 more years to live. ⁶I’ll rescue you and defend this city from the control of the king of Assyria.’ ” 

²¹Then Isaiah said, “Take a fig cake, and place it over the boil so that the king will get well.” 

²²Hezekiah asked, “What is the sign that I’ll go to the Lord’s temple?”^a

⁷⸤Isaiah said,⸥ “This is your sign from the Lord that he will do what he promises. ⁸The sun made a shadow that went down the stairway of Ahaz’s upper palace. I’m going to make the shadow go back ten steps.” So the sun on the stairway went back up the ten steps it had gone down. 

⁹King Hezekiah of Judah wrote this after he was sick and became well again: 

¹⁰I thought that in the prime of my life 

I would go down to the gates of Sheol 

and be robbed of the rest of my life. 

¹¹I thought that I wouldn’t see the Lord in this world. 

Even with all the people in the world, 

I thought I would never see another person. 

¹²My life was over. 

You rolled it up like a shepherd’s tent. 

You rolled up my life like a weaver. 

You cut me off from the loom. 

You ended my life in one day. 

¹³I cried out until morning 

as if a lion had crushed all my bones. 

You ended my life in one day. 

¹⁴I chirped like swallows and cranes. 

I cooed like doves. 

My eyes were tired from looking up to heaven. 

I’ve suffered miserably, O Lord! 

Please help me! 

¹⁵What can I say now that he has spoken to me? 

He has done this. 

I will be careful the rest of my life because of my bitter experience. 

¹⁶Lord, people live in spite of such things, 

and I have the will to live in spite of them. 

You give me health and keep me alive. 

¹⁷Now my bitter experience turns into peace. 

You have saved me and kept me from the rotting pit. 

You have thrown all my sins behind you. 

¹⁸Sheol doesn’t thank you! 

Death doesn’t praise you! 

Those who go down to the pit cannot expect you to be faithful. 

¹⁹Those who are living praise you as I do today. 

Fathers make your faithfulness known to their children. 

²⁰The Lord is going to rescue me, 

so let us play stringed instruments. 

We live our lives in the Lord’s temple. 

39TH CHAPTER

Hezekiah Shows the Babylonians His Treasures—2 Kings 20:12–19; 2 Chronicles 32:31–33

¹At that time Baladan’s son, King Merodach Baladan of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah. He had heard that Hezekiah had been sick and had recovered. ²Hezekiah was so happy with them that he showed the messengers his warehouse: the silver, gold, balsam, fine olive oil, his entire armory, and everything in his treasury. Hezekiah showed them everything in his palace and every corner of his kingdom. 

³Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and asked, “What did these men say? And where did they come from?” 

Hezekiah answered, “They came to me from the distant country of Babylon.” 

⁴Isaiah asked, “What did they see in your palace?” 

Hezekiah answered, “They saw everything in my palace, and I showed them everything in my treasury.” 

⁵Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord of Armies! ⁶The Lord says, ‘The days are going to come when everything in your palace, everything your ancestors have stored up to this day, will be taken away to Babylon. Nothing will be left. ⁷Some of your own descendants will be taken away. They will become officials in the palace of the king of Babylon.’ ” 

⁸Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The Lord’s word that you have spoken is good.” He added, “Just let there be peace and security as long as I live.”