Isaiah 36:1–37:38
Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem
36:1–22pp—2Ki 18:13,17–37; 2Ch 32:9–19
36 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’st reign, Sennacheribu king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.v 2 Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander with a large army from Lachishw to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. When the commander stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field,x 3 Eliakimy son of Hilkiah the palace administrator,z Shebnaa the secretary,b and Joahc son of Asaph the recorderd went out to him.
4 The field commander said to them, “Tell Hezekiah:
“ ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours? 5 You say you have counsel and might for war—but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebele against me? 6 Look, I know you are dependingf on Egypt,g that splintered reedh of a staff, which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him. 7 But if you say to me, “We are dependingi on the Lord our God”—isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed,j saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship before this altar”?k
8 “ ‘Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horsesl—if you can put riders on them! 9 How then can you repulse one officer of the least of my master’s officials, even though you are depending on Egyptm for chariotsn and horsemena?o 10 Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the Lord? The Lord himself toldp me to march against this country and destroy it.’ ”
11 Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joahq said to the field commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic,r since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.”
12 But the commander replied, “Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the people sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?s”
13 Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew,t “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!u 14 This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceivev you. He cannot deliver you! 15 Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord when he says, ‘The Lord will surely deliverw us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’x
16 “Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig treey and drink water from your own cistern,z 17 until I come and take you to a land like your owna—a land of grain and new wine,b a land of bread and vineyards.
18 “Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ Have the gods of any nations ever delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad?c Where are the gods of Sepharvaim?d Have they rescued Samariae from my hand? 20 Who of all the godsf of these countries have been able to save their lands from me? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”g
21 But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.”h
22 Then Eliakimi son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary and Joah son of Asaph the recorderj went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn,k and told him what the field commander had said.
Jerusalem’s Deliverance Foretold
37 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothesl and put on sackclothm and went into the templen of the Lord. 2 He sent Eliakimo the palace administrator, Shebnap the secretary, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.q 3 They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distressr and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment of births and there is no strength to deliver them. 4 It may be that the Lord your God will hear the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridiculet the living God,u and that he will rebuke him for the words the Lord your God has heard.v Therefore prayw for the remnantx that still survives.”
5 When King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraidy of what you have heard—those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemedz me. 7 Listen! When he hears a certain report,a I will make him wantb to return to his own country, and there I will have him cut downc with the sword.’ ”
8 When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish,d he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.e
9 Now Sennacheribf received a reportg that Tirhakah, the king of Cush,a h was marching out to fight against him. When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word: 10 “Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend on deceivei you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.’j 11 Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered?k 12 Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my predecessorsl deliver them—the gods of Gozan, Harran,m Rezeph and the people of Edenn who were in Tel Assar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath or the king of Arpad?o Where are the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim,p Hena and Ivvah?”q
14 Hezekiah received the letterr from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temples of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. 15 And Hezekiah prayedt to the Lord: 16 “Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, enthronedu between the cherubim,v you alone are Godw over all the kingdomsx of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.y 17 Give ear, Lord, and hear;z open your eyes, Lord, and see;a listen to all the words Sennacheribb has sent to ridiculec the living God.d
18 “It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands.e 19 They have thrown their gods into the firef and destroyed them,g for they were not godsh but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands.i 20 Now, Lord our God, deliverj us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earthk may know that you, Lord, are the only God.b l”
37:21–38pp—2Ki 19:20–37; 2Ch 32:20–21
21 Then Isaiah son of Amozm sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22 this is the word the Lord has spoken against him:
despises and mocks you.
Daughter Jerusalem
tosses her headp as you flee.
23 Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed?q
Against whom have you raised your voicer
and lifted your eyes in pride?s
Against the Holy Onet of Israel!
you have ridiculed the Lord.
And you have said,
‘With my many chariotsu
I have ascended the heights of the mountains,
the utmost heightsv of Lebanon.w
I have cut down its tallest cedars,
the choicest of its junipers.x
I have reached its remotest heights,
the finest of its forests.
25 I have dug wells in foreign landsc
and drunk the water there.
With the soles of my feet
I have dried upy all the streams of Egypt.z’
Long ago I ordaineda it.
In days of old I plannedb it;
now I have brought it to pass,
that you have turned fortified cities
into piles of stone.c
27 Their people, drained of power,
are dismayed and put to shame.
They are like plants in the field,
like tender green shoots,
like grassd sprouting on the roof,e
scorchedd before it grows up.
and when you come and gof
and how you rageg against me.
29 Because you rage against me
and because your insolenceh has reached my ears,
I will put my hooki in your nosej
and my bit in your mouth,
and I will make you return
by the way you came.k
30 “This will be the signl for you, Hezekiah:
“This yearm you will eat what grows by itself,
and the second year what springs from that.
But in the third yearn sow and reap,
plant vineyardso and eat their fruit.p
31 Once more a remnant of the kingdom of Judah
will take rootq below and bear fruitr above.
32 For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant,s
and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.t
The zealu of the Lord Almighty
will accomplish this.
33 “Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria:
“He will not enter this cityv
or shoot an arrow here.
He will not come before it with shield
or build a siege rampw against it.
34 By the way that he came he will return;x
he will not enter this city,”
declares the Lord.
35 “I will defendy this city and save it,
for my sakez and for the sake of Davida my servant!”
36 Then the angelb of the Lord went out and put to deathc a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyriand camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! 37 So Sennacheribe king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Ninevehf and stayed there.
38 One day, while he was worshiping in the templeg of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer killed him with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat.h And Esarhaddoni his son succeeded him as king.j