Isaiah 37:1–38:22
1 And awhen King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of the Lord.
2 Then he sent aEliakim who was over the household with bShebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to cIsaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.
3 They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a aday of distress, rebuke and rejection; for bchildren have come to birth, and there is no strength to 1deliver.
4 ‘Perhaps the Lord your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to areproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for bthe remnant that is left.’ ”
5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
6 Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord, “aDo not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me.
7 “Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will ahear a rumor and breturn to his own land. And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.” ’ ”
8 Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against aLibnah, for he had heard that 1the king had left bLachish.
9 When he aheard them say concerning Tirhakah king of 1bCush, “He has come out to fight against you,” and when he heard it he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
10 “Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of 1Judah, ‘aDo not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”
11 ‘aBehold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them completely. So will you be 1spared?
12 ‘Did the gods of 1those nations which my fathers have destroyed deliver them, even aGozan and bHaran and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar?
13 ‘Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah?’ ”
Hezekiah’s Prayer in the Temple
14 Then Hezekiah took the 1letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the Lord and 2spread it out before the Lord.
15 Hezekiah prayed to the Lord saying,
16 “O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, awho is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the bGod, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. cYou have made heaven and earth.
17 “aIncline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and blisten to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to creproach the living God.
18 “Truly, O Lord, the akings of Assyria have devastated all the countries and their lands,
19 and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the awork of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have bdestroyed them.
20 “Now, O Lord our God, adeliver us from his hand that ball the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, Lord, 1are God.”
21 Then aIsaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria,
22 this is the word that the Lord has spoken against him:
“She has despised you and mocked you,
The avirgin bdaughter of Zion;
She has cshaken her head behind you,
The daughter of Jerusalem!
23 “Whom have you areproached and blasphemed?
And against whom have you raised your voice
And 1haughtily blifted up your eyes?
Against the cHoly One of Israel!
24 “Through your servants you have reproached the Lord,
And you have said, ‘With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains,
To the remotest parts of aLebanon;
And I cut down its tall bcedars and its choice cypresses.
And I will go to its 1highest peak, its thickest cforest.
25 ‘I dug wells and drank waters,
And awith the sole of my feet I dried up
All the rivers of 1Egypt.’
26 “aHave you not heard?
Long ago I did it,
From ancient times I bplanned it.
Now cI have brought it to pass,
That dyou should turn fortified cities into eruinous heaps.
27 “Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength,
They were dismayed and put to shame;
They were as the avegetation of the field and as the green herb,
As bgrass on the housetops 1is scorched before it is grown up.
28 “But I aknow your sitting down
And your going out and your coming in
And your raging against Me.
29 “Because of your raging against Me
And because your 1aarrogance has come up to My ears,
Therefore I will put My bhook in your nose
And My cbridle in your lips,
And I will turn you back dby the way which you came.
30 “Then this shall be the sign for you: 1you will eat this year what agrows of itself, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
31 “The asurviving bremnant of the house of Judah will again ctake root downward and bear fruit upward.
32 “For out of Jerusalem will go forth a aremnant and out of Mount Zion 1survivors. The bzeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” ’
33 “Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield, or throw up a asiege ramp against it.
34 ‘aBy the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he will not come to this city,’ declares the Lord.
35 ‘For I will adefend this city to save it bfor My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’ ”
36 Then the aangel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when 1men arose early in the morning, behold, all of these were 2dead.
37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and 1returned home and lived at aNineveh.
38 It came about as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons killed him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of aArarat. And bEsarhaddon his son became king in his place.
1 aIn those days Hezekiah became 1mortally ill. And bIsaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘cSet your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’ ”
2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord,
3 and said, “aRemember now, O Lord, I beseech You, how I have bwalked before You in truth and with a cwhole heart, and dhave done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah ewept 1bitterly.
4 Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying,
5 “Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of your father David, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will add afifteen years to your 1life.
6 “I will adeliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city.” ’
7 “This shall be the asign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that He has spoken:
8 “Behold, I will acause the shadow on the stairway, which has gone down with the sun on the stairway of Ahaz, to go back ten steps.” So the bsun’s shadow went back ten steps on the stairway on which it had gone down.
9 A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and 1recovery:
10 I said, “aIn the middle of my 1life
I am to enter the bgates of Sheol;
I am to be cdeprived of the rest of my years.”
11 I said, “I will not see the Lord,
The Lord ain the land of the living;
I will look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world.
12 “Like a shepherd’s atent my dwelling is pulled up and removed from me;
As a bweaver I crolled up my life.
He dcuts me off from the loom;
From eday until night You make an end of me.
13 “I composed my soul until morning.
aLike a lion—so He bbreaks all my bones,
From cday until night You make an end of me.
14 “aLike a swallow, like a crane, so I twitter;
I bmoan like a dove;
My ceyes look wistfully to the heights;
O Lord, I am oppressed, be my dsecurity.
15 “aWhat shall I say?
1For He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done it;
I will bwander about all my years because of the cbitterness of my soul.
16 “O Lord, aby these things men live,
And in all these is the life of my spirit;
1bO restore me to health and clet me live!
17 “Lo, for my own welfare I had great bitterness;
It is You who has 1akept my soul from the pit of 2nothingness,
For You have bcast all my sins behind Your back.
18 “For aSheol cannot thank You,
Death cannot praise You;
Those who go down bto the pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness.
19 “It is the aliving who give thanks to You, as I do today;
A bfather tells his sons about Your faithfulness.
20 “The Lord will surely save me;
So we will aplay my songs on stringed instruments
bAll the days of our life cat the house of the Lord.”
21 Now aIsaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover.”
22 Then Hezekiah had said, “What is the asign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?”