Chapter 37

Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah’s Help

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.”

God Answers through Isaiah

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.’ ”

Assyrians Destroyed

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.