Isaiah 37

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.