Isaiah 36–39

Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem

36And this happened: In the fourteenth year^a of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria went up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and he captured them. ²And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh^b from Lachish to Jerusalem, to King Hezekiah, with a large army, and he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway of the field of the washer. ³And Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace,^c came out to him, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the reminder.

⁴And Rabshakeh said to them, “Now say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: “What is this confidence in which you trust? ⁵I said, ‘Only a word of lips! War has power and a plan!’^d Now, in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me? ⁶Look, you trust in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt, which if a man leans on it, goes into his hand and bores through it! Such is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all those who trust in him. ⁷And if you say to me, ‘We trust in Yahweh our God,’ was it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed? And he said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall bow down in the presence^e of this altar.’ ” ⁸And now please make a wager with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, that is, if you are able to put^f riders for yourself on them! ⁹But how can you drive back one governor among the least of my master’s servants,^g when^h you trust in Egypt for chariotsⁱ and horsemen? ¹⁰And now was it without Yahweh that I have come up against this land to destroy it? Yahweh said to me, “Go up against this land and destroy it!” ’ ”

¹¹And Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we can understand^j it, and you must not speak to us in Judean in the hearing^k of the people who are on the wall.”

¹²But^l Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your masters and you? Was it not for the people who sit on the wall, to eat their dung and drink their urine^m with you?”

¹³Thenⁿ Rabshakeh stood and called in a great voice in Judean and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. ¹⁴Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you! ¹⁵And do not let Hezekiah make you rely on Yahweh, saying, “Surely Yahweh will deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria!” ¹⁶You must not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: “Make a blessing^o with me, and come out to me, and each one will eat from his vine and from his fig tree and drink water from^p his cistern, ¹⁷until I come^q and take you to a land like your land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, ¹⁸lest Hezekiah mislead you, saying, ‘Yahweh will save us!’ Did the gods of the nations each save his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? ¹⁹Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand? ²⁰Who are there among all the gods of these countries who have saved their land from my hand, that Yahweh should save Jerusalem from my hand?” ’ ”

²¹But^r they were silent and did not answer him a word, for the command of the king was, “You must not answer him.” ²²Then^s Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was over the palace,^t Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the reminder, came to Hezekiah with torn garments and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

Hezekiah Consults Isaiah

37And this happened: When King Hezekiah heard, he tore his garments, covered himself with sackcloth, and entered the temple^a of Yahweh. ²And he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of^b the palace,^c and Shebna the secretary, and the elders of the priests covered^d with sackcloth to Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet. ³And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah: ‘This day is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace, for children have come to the cervical opening, and there is no strength to give birth. ⁴Maybe Yahweh your God heard the words of Rabshakeh whom the king of Assyria, his master, has sent to taunt the living God, and he will rebuke the words that Yahweh your God hears. And you must lift up a prayer for the benefit of the remnant that is found.’ ”

⁵When^e the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, ⁶Isaiah said to them, “You must say this to your master: ‘Thus says Yahweh: “You must not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. ⁷Look! I am about to put^f a spirit in him so that^g he shall hear a rumor and he shall return to his land, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his land.” ’ ”

⁸And Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that he had left from Lachish. ⁹Now^h heⁱ heard concerning Tirhakah the king of Cush, saying, “He has set out to fight against^j you.”

When^k he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰“You shall say this to Hezekiah, king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust in him deceive you by saying, “Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ¹¹Look! you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands to destroy them, and you—shall you be delivered? ¹²Did the gods of the nations that my predecessors^l destroyed deliver them—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar? ¹³Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, or^m Ivvah?’ ”

Hezekiah’s Prayer

¹⁴And Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers, and he readⁿ it. Then^o he went up to the temple^p of Yahweh, and Hezekiah spread it out before the presence^q of Yahweh. ¹⁵And Hezekiah prayed to Yahweh, saying, ¹⁶“Yahweh of hosts, God of Israel who is enthroned on^r the cherubim, you are the one, God by yourself, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you are the one who made the heavens and the earth. ¹⁷Yahweh, extend your ear and hear! Yahweh, open your eyes and see, and hear all the words of Sennacherib that he has sent to taunt the living God! ¹⁸Truly, Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the lands^s and their land, ¹⁹to set^t their gods in the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of human hands, wood and stone, and they destroyed them. ²⁰So^u now, Yahweh, our God, save us from his hand so that^v all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are Yahweh, you alone!”

God’s Answer

²¹And Isaiah son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel: ‘Because you have prayed to me concerning^w Sennacherib, king of Assyria, ²²this is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him:

She shows contempt for you; she derides you, virgin daughter of Zion;

she shakes her head behind you, daughter of Jerusalem.

²³Whom have you taunted and blasphemed,

and against whom have you raised up your voice and lifted your eyes upward?

To the holy one of Israel!

²⁴By the hand of your servants you have taunted the Lord,

and you have said, “With my many chariots,^x

I myself have gone up the height of the mountains,

to the remote areas of Lebanon.

And I cut off its tall cedars,^y

the choicest of its junipers.

And I came to the height of its limit,

the forest of its orchard.^z

²⁵I myself dug and drank waters,

and I caused all the streams of Egypt to dry up by the sole of my feet.”

²⁶Have you not heard from a long time ago?^a I have made it

from days of primeval time, and I formed it.

Now I have brought it about,

and it is for fortified cities to collapse into heaps of destroyed stones.

²⁷And their inhabitants are weak;^b

they are dismayed, and they are ashamed;

they have become like plants^c of the field,

and like greens of grass,

like grass on^d the roofs

and a cultivated field before^e the standing grain.

²⁸And I know your sitting down and your going out,

and your coming in, and your raging against^f me.

²⁹Because you were enraged against^g me,

and your noise^h has come up toⁱ my ears,

I will put my hook in your nose

and my bridle on your lips,

and I will turn you back

on the way by which you came.

³⁰And this shall be the sign for you: the eating of volunteer plants^j this^k year, and in the second year self-seeded plants,^l and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. ³¹And the remnant of the house of Judah that remain shall grow^m rootsⁿ downwards and make fruit upwards.

³²For a remnant shall go out from Jerusalem

and survivors^o from mountain Zion.

The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will do this.’

³³Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning^p the king of Assyria:

‘He shall not come to this city,

and he shall not shoot an arrow there,

and he shall not meet it with a shield,

and he shall not heap a siege ramp up against her.

³⁴He shall return by the way that he came,

and he shall not come to this city,’

declares^q Yahweh.

³⁵‘And I will defend this city, to save it for my sake and for the sake of David, my servant.’ ”

Sennacherib’s Defeat

³⁶And the angel of Yahweh set out and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When^r they rose in the morning, look! All of them were dead corpses. ³⁷Then^s Sennacherib king of Assyria left, went, and returned and lived at Nineveh. ³⁸And this happened: he was bowing in worship in the house of Nisroch his god, and Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him with the sword. And they themselves escaped to the land of Ararat, and Esar-haddon his son reigned as king in his place.

Hezekiah’s Illness

38In those days, Hezekiah became sick to death, and Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet, came to him and said to him, “Thus says Yahweh: ‘Order your house, for you are about to die, and you shall not recover.’ ” ²Then^a Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh, ³and he said, “O Yahweh, please remember how^b I have walked before your presence^c in faithfulness with a whole heart, and I have done the good in your eyes!” And…