Isaiah 37:2–39:8

²And he sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the court secretary, and the leading priests, all dressed in burlap, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. ³They told him, “This is what King Hezekiah says: Today is a day of trouble, insults, and disgrace. It is like when a child is ready to be born, but the mother has no strength to deliver the baby. ⁴But perhaps the Lord your God has heard the Assyrian chief of staff, sent by the king to defy the living God, and will punish him for his words. Oh, pray for those of us who are left!”

⁵After King Hezekiah’s officials delivered the king’s message to Isaiah, ⁶the prophet replied, “Say to your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not be disturbed by this blasphemous speech against me from the Assyrian king’s messengers. ⁷Listen! I myself will move against him, and the king will receive a message that he is needed at home. So he will return to his land, where I will have him killed with a sword.’ ”

⁸Meanwhile, the Assyrian chief of staff left Jerusalem and went to consult the king of Assyria, who had left Lachish and was attacking Libnah.

⁹Soon afterward King Sennacherib received word that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia was leading an army to fight against him. Before leaving to meet the attack, he sent messengers back to Hezekiah in Jerusalem with this message:

¹⁰“This message is for King Hezekiah of Judah. Don’t let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you with promises that Jerusalem will not be captured by the king of Assyria. ¹¹You know perfectly well what the kings of Assyria have done wherever they have gone. They have completely destroyed everyone who stood in their way! Why should you be any different? ¹²Have the gods of other nations rescued them—such nations as Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Tel-assar? My predecessors destroyed them all! ¹³What happened to the king of Hamath and the king of Arpad? What happened to the kings of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?”

¹⁴After Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it, he went up to the Lord’s Temple and spread it out before the Lord. ¹⁵And Hezekiah prayed this prayer before the Lord: ¹⁶“O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, God of Israel, you are enthroned between the mighty cherubim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You alone created the heavens and the earth. ¹⁷Bend down, O Lord, and listen! Open your eyes, O Lord, and see! Listen to Sennacherib’s words of defiance against the living God.

¹⁸“It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all these nations. ¹⁹And they have thrown the gods of these nations into the fire and burned them. But of course the Assyrians could destroy them! They were not gods at all—only idols of wood and stone shaped by human hands. ²⁰Now, O Lord our God, rescue us from his power; then all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you alone, O Lord, are God.”

Isaiah Predicts Judah’s Deliverance

²¹Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Because you prayed about King Sennacherib of Assyria, ²²the Lord has spoken this word against him:

“The virgin daughter of Zion

despises you and laughs at you.

The daughter of Jerusalem

shakes her head in derision as you flee.

²³“Whom have you been defying and ridiculing?

Against whom did you raise your voice?

At whom did you look with such haughty eyes?

It was the Holy One of Israel!

²⁴By your messengers you have defied the Lord.

You have said, ‘With my many chariots

I have conquered the highest mountains—

yes, the remotest peaks of Lebanon.

I have cut down its tallest cedars

and its finest cypress trees.

I have reached its farthest heights

and explored its deepest forests.

²⁵I have dug wells in many foreign lands

and refreshed myself with their water.

With the sole of my foot,

I stopped up all the rivers of Egypt!’

²⁶“But have you not heard?

I decided this long ago.

Long ago I planned it,

and now I am making it happen.

I planned for you to crush fortified cities

into heaps of rubble.

²⁷That is why their people have so little power

and are so frightened and confused.

They are as weak as grass,

as easily trampled as tender green shoots.

They are like grass sprouting on a housetop,

scorched before it can grow lush and tall.

²⁸“But I know you well—

where you stay

and when you come and go.

I know the way you have raged against me.

²⁹And because of your raging against me

and your arrogance, which I have heard for myself,

I will put my hook in your nose

and my bit in your mouth.

I will make you return

by the same road on which you came.”

³⁰Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Here is the proof that what I say is true:

“This year you will eat only what grows up by itself,

and next year you will eat what springs up from that.

But in the third year you will plant crops and harvest them;

you will tend vineyards and eat their fruit.

³¹And you who are left in Judah,

who have escaped the ravages of the siege,

will put roots down in your own soil

and grow up and flourish.

³²For a remnant of my people will spread out from Jerusalem,

a group of survivors from Mount Zion.

The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies

will make this happen!

³³“And this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:

“ ‘His armies will not enter Jerusalem.

They will not even shoot an arrow at it.

They will not march outside its gates with their shields

nor build banks of earth against its walls.

³⁴The king will return to his own country

by the same road on which he came.

He will not enter this city,’

says the Lord.

³⁵‘For my own honor and for the sake of my servant David,

I will defend this city and protect it.’ ”

³⁶That night the angel of the Lord went out to the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. When the surviving Assyrians woke up the next morning, they found corpses everywhere. ³⁷Then King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and returned to his own land. He went home to his capital of Nineveh and stayed there.

³⁸One day while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with their swords. They then escaped to the land of Ararat, and another son, Esarhaddon, became the next king of Assyria.

Chapter 38

Hezekiah’s Sickness and Recovery

About that time Hezekiah became deathly ill, and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to visit him. He gave the king this message: “This is what the Lord says: ‘Set your affairs in order, for you are going to die. You will not recover from this illness.’ ”

²When Hezekiah heard this, he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, ³“Remember, O Lord, how I have always been faithful to you and have served you single-mindedly, always doing what pleases you.” Then he broke down and wept bitterly.

⁴Then this message came to Isaiah from the Lord: ⁵“Go back to Hezekiah and tell him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your ancestor David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will add fifteen years to your life, ⁶and I will rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria. Yes, I will defend this city.

⁷“ ‘And this is the sign from the Lord to prove that he will do as he promised: ⁸I will cause the sun’s shadow to move ten steps backward on the sundial of Ahaz!’ ” So the shadow on the sundial moved backward ten steps.

Hezekiah’s Poem of Praise

⁹When King Hezekiah was well again, he wrote this poem:

¹⁰I said, “In the prime of my life,

must I now enter the place of the dead?

Am I to be robbed of the rest of my years?”

¹¹I said, “Never again will I see the Lord God

while still in the land of the living.

Never again will I see my friends

or be with those who live in this world.

¹²My life has been blown away

like a shepherd’s tent in a storm.

It has been cut short,

as when a weaver cuts cloth from a loom.

Suddenly, my life was over.

¹³I waited patiently all night,

but I was torn apart as though by lions.

Suddenly, my life was over.

¹⁴Delirious, I chattered like a swallow or a crane,

and then I moaned like a mourning dove.

My eyes grew tired of looking to heaven for help.

I am in trouble, Lord. Help me!”

¹⁵But what could I say?

For he himself sent this sickness.

Now I will walk humbly throughout my years

because of this anguish I have felt.

¹⁶Lord, your discipline is good,

for it leads to life and health.

You restore my health

and allow me to live!

¹⁷Yes, this anguish was good for me,

for you have rescued me from death

and forgiven all my sins.

¹⁸For the dead cannot praise you;

they cannot raise their voices in praise.

Those who go down to the grave

can no longer hope in your faithfulness.

¹⁹Only the living can praise you as I do today.

Each generation tells of your faithfulness to the next.

²⁰Think of it—the Lord is ready to heal me!

I will sing his praises with instruments

every day of my life

in the Temple of the Lord.

²¹Isaiah had said to Hezekiah’s servants, “Make an ointment from figs and spread it over the boil, and Hezekiah will recover.”

²²And Hezekiah had asked, “What sign will prove that I will go to the Temple of the Lord?”

Chapter 39

Envoys from Babylon

Soon after this, Merodach-baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent Hezekiah his best wishes and a gift. He had heard that Hezekiah had been very sick and that he had recovered. ²Hezekiah was delighted with the Babylonian envoys and showed them everything in his treasure-houses—the silver, the gold, the spices, and the aromatic oils. He also took them to see his armory and showed them everything in his royal treasuries! There was nothing in his palace or kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.

³Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did those men want? Where were they from?”

Hezekiah replied, “They came from the distant land of Babylon.”

⁴“What did they see in your palace?” asked Isaiah.

“They saw everything,” Hezekiah replied. “I showed them everything I own—all my royal treasuries.”

⁵Then Isaiah said…