Isaiah 36:11–39:8

¹¹Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, ^wsince we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew ^xwithin earshot of the people who are on the wall.”

¹²But the Rabshakeh replied, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men who are sitting on the wall, who are destined with you to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?”

¹³Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out loudly in Hebrew: ^y

Listen to the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! ¹⁴This is what the king says: “Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, ^zfor he cannot deliver you. ¹⁵Don’t let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord will certainly deliver us! This city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.’ ”

¹⁶Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: “Make peace ^awith me and surrender to me. Then every one of you may eat from his own vine and his own fig tree ^band drink water from his own cistern ¹⁷until I come and take you away to a land like your own land—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. ¹⁸Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you by saying, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ ^cHas any one of the gods of the nations ^ddelivered his land from the power of the king of Assyria? ¹⁹Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? ^eWhere are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my power? ^f20Who among all the gods of these lands ever delivered his land from my power? So will the Lord deliver Jerusalem.”

²¹But they kept silent; they didn’t say anything, for the king’s command was, “Don’t answer him.” ^g22Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the court secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the court historian, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and reported to him the words of the Rabshakeh.

Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah’s Counsel

37When King Hezekiah heard their report, ^hhe tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, ⁱand 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, ^jfor children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to deliver them. ^k4Perhaps Yahweh your God will hear all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria sent to mock the living God, ^land will rebuke him for the words that Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore offer a prayer for the surviving remnant.’ ” ^m

⁵So the servants of King Hezekiah went to Isaiah, ⁶who said to them, “Tell your master this, ‘The Lord says: Don’t be afraid ⁿbecause of the words you have heard, which the king of Assyria’s attendants have blasphemed Me with. ^o7I am about to put a spirit ^pin him and he will hear a rumor and return to his own land, where I will cause him to fall by the sword.’ ” ^q

Sennacherib’s Letter

⁸When the Rabshakeh heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, ^rhe returned and found him fighting against Libnah. ^s9The king had heard this about Tirhakah king of Cush: ^t“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 ^uby 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 ^vthat my predecessors destroyed rescue them—Gozan, ^wHaran, ^xRezeph, 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. ^y15Then Hezekiah prayed ^zto the Lord:

¹⁶Lord of Hosts, God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, ^aYou are God ^b—You alone ^c—of all the kingdoms of the earth. ^dYou made the heavens and the earth. ^e17Listen closely, Lord, and hear; ^fopen Your eyes, Lord, and see. ^gHear all the words that Sennacherib has sent to mock the living God. ^h18Lord, 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 ⁱbut made by human hands ^j—wood and stone. ^kSo 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 ^l—You alone. ^m

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 ⁿ

despises you and scorns you:

Daughter Jerusalem shakes her head ^o

behind your back. ^p

²³Who is it you have mocked ^qand blasphemed?

Who have you raised your voice against

and lifted your eyes in pride? ^r

Against the Holy One of Israel! ^s

²⁴You have mocked the Lord through ^tyour servants.

You have said, “With my many chariots ^u

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 ^vand drank water.

I dried up all the streams of Egypt

with the soles of my feet.” ^w

²⁶Have you not heard? ^x

I designed it long ago;

I planned it in days gone by. ^y

I have now brought it to pass,

and you have crushed fortified cities ^z

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. ^a

²⁸But I know ^byour sitting down,

your going out and your coming in, ^c

and your raging against Me.

²⁹Because your raging against Me

and your arrogance have reached My ears, ^d

I will put My hook in your nose ^e

and My bit in your mouth; ^f

I will make you go back

the way you came.

³⁰“ ‘This will be the sign for you: ^gThis 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 ^hdownward and bear fruit upward. ³²For a remnant ⁱwill go out from Jerusalem and survivors, from Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this.’ ^j

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 ^k

and because of My servant David.” ^l

Defeat and Death of Sennacherib

³⁶Then ^mthe angel of the Lord ⁿwent 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. ^o

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. ^pThen his son Esar-haddon ^qbecame king in his place.

Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery

38In those days Hezekiah became terminally ill. ^rThe prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Put your affairs in order, ^stfor you are about to die; you will not recover.’ ” ^u

²Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord. ³He said, “Please, Lord, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and wholeheartedly, ^vand have done what pleases You.” ^wxAnd Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: ⁵“Go and tell Hezekiah that this is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I am going to add 15 years to your life. ^yz6And I will deliver you and this city from the power of the king of Assyria; I will defend this city. ^a7This is the sign to you ^bfrom the Lord that He will do what ^cHe has promised: ^d8I am going to make the sun’s shadow that goes down on Ahaz’s stairway go back by 10 steps.” ^eSo the sun’s shadow ^fwent back the 10 steps it had descended.

⁹A poem by Hezekiah king of Judah after he had been sick and had recovered from his illness:

¹⁰I said: In the prime ^gof my life ^hi

I must go to the gates of Sheol; ^j

I am deprived of the rest of my years.

¹¹I said: I will never see the Lord,

the Lord in the land of the living; ^k

I will not look on humanity any longer

with the inhabitants of what is passing away. ^l

¹²My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me

like a shepherd’s tent. ^m

I have rolled up my life like a weaver; ⁿ

He cuts me off from the loom. ^op

You make an end of me from day until night. ^q

¹³I thought until the morning:

He will break all my bones like a lion;

You make an end of me day and night.

¹⁴I chirp like a swallow or a crane;

I moan like a dove. ^r

My eyes grow weak looking upward.

Lord, I am oppressed; support me. ^s

¹⁵What can I say?

He has spoken to me,

and He Himself has done it.

I walk along slowly all my years ^t

because of the bitterness of my soul, ^u

¹⁶Lord, because of these promises people live, ^v

and in all of them is the life of my spirit as well;

You have restored me to health ^w

and let me live. ^x

¹⁷Indeed, it was for my own welfare

that I had such great bitterness; ^y

but Your love has delivered me

from the Pit of destruction, ^z

for You have thrown all my sins behind Your back. ^a

¹⁸For Sheol cannot thank You;

Death cannot praise You. ^b

Those who go down to the Pit

cannot hope for Your faithfulness.

¹⁹The living, only the…