Isaiah 37:1-38
37 And it came about that as soon as King Hez·e·kiʹah heard, he immediately ripped his garments apart and covered himself with sackcloth+ and came into the house of Jehovah.+
2 Further, he sent E·liʹa·kim,+ who was over the household, and Shebʹna the secretary+ and the older men* of the priests+ covered with sackcloth to Isaiah+ the son of Aʹmoz the prophet.+
3 And they proceeded to say to him: “This is what Hez·e·kiʹah has said, ‘This day is a day of distress+ and of rebuke and of scornful insolence,+ for the sons have come as far as the womb’s mouth,* and there is no power to give birth.+
4 Perhaps Jehovah your God* will hear the words of Rabʹsha·keh,+ whom the king of As·syrʹi·a his lord* sent to taunt+ the living God,* and he will actually call him to account for the words that Jehovah your God has heard.+ And you must lift up prayer+ in behalf of the remnant that are to be found.’”+
5 So the servants of King Hez·e·kiʹah came in to Isaiah.+
6 Then Isaiah said to them: “This is what YOU should say to YOUR lord, ‘This is what Jehovah has said:+ “Do not be afraid+ because of the words that you have heard with which the attendants+ of the king of As·syrʹi·a spoke abusively of me.
7 Here I am putting a spirit+ in him, and he must hear a report+ and return to his own land; and I shall certainly cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.”’”+
8 After that Rabʹsha·keh+ returned and found the king of As·syrʹi·a fighting against Libʹnah,+ for he had heard that he had pulled away from Laʹchish.+
9 Now he heard it said concerning Tir·haʹkah+ the king of E·thi·oʹpi·a:* “He has come out to fight against you.” When he heard, he at once sent messengers+ to Hez·e·kiʹah, saying:
10 “This is what YOU men should say to Hez·e·kiʹah the king of Judah, ‘Do not let your God in whom you are trusting deceive you,+ saying: “Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of As·syrʹi·a.”+
11 Look! You yourself have heard what the kings of As·syrʹi·a did to all the lands by devoting them to destruction,+ and will you yourself be delivered?+
12 Have the gods+ of the nations that my forefathers brought to ruin delivered them,+ even Goʹzan+ and Haʹran+ and Reʹzeph and the sons of Eʹden+ that were in Tel-asʹsar?
13 Where is the king of Haʹmath+ and the king of Arʹpad+ and the king of the city of Seph·ar·vaʹim+—of Heʹna and of Ivʹvah?’”+
14 Then Hez·e·kiʹah took the letters out of the hand of the messengers and read them,+ after which Hez·e·kiʹah went up to the house of Jehovah and spread it out before Jehovah.+
15 And Hez·e·kiʹah began to pray to Jehovah,+ saying:
16 “O Jehovah of armies, the God of Israel,+ sitting upon the cherubs, you alone are the [true] God of all the kingdoms of the earth.+ You yourself have made the heavens and the earth.+
17 Incline your ear, O Jehovah, and hear.+ Open your eyes,+ O Jehovah, and see, and hear all the words of Sen·nachʹer·ib+ that he has sent to taunt the living God.*+
18 It is a fact, O Jehovah, that the kings of As·syrʹi·a have devastated all the lands, and their own land.+
19 And there was a consigning of their gods to the fire,+ because they were no gods,*+ but the workmanship of man’s hands,+ wood and stone, so that they destroyed them.+
20 And now, O Jehovah our God,+ save us out of his hand,+ that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Jehovah, are [God]* alone.”+
21 And Isaiah the son of Aʹmoz proceeded to send to Hez·e·kiʹah, saying: “This is what Jehovah the God of Israel has said, ‘Because you have prayed to me concerning Sen·nachʹer·ib the king of As·syrʹi·a,+
22 this is the word that Jehovah has spoken against him:
“The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you, she has held you in derision.+Behind you the daughter of Jerusalem has wagged [her] head.+
23 Whom have you taunted+ and spoken of abusively?+And against whom have you lifted up [your] voice+And do you raise your eyes on high?+It is against the Holy One of Israel!+
24 By means of your servants you have taunted Jehovah* and you say,+‘With the multitude of my war chariots I myself+—I shall certainly ascend the height of mountainous regions,+The remotest parts of Lebʹa·non;+And I shall cut down its lofty cedars, its choice juniper trees.+And I shall enter its final height,* the forest of its orchard.+
25 I myself shall certainly dig and drink waters,And I shall dry up with the soles of my feet all the Nile+ canals of Egypt.’*+
26 Have you not heard?+ From remote times it is what I will do.+From bygone days I have even formed it.+ Now I will bring it in.+And you will serve to make fortified cities become desolate as piles of ruins.+
27 And their inhabitants will be feeble-handed;+They will simply be terrified and ashamed.+They must become as vegetation of the field and green tender grass,+Grass of the roofs+ and of the terrace before the east wind.+
28 And your sitting quiet* and your going out+ and your coming in I well know,+And your exciting yourself against me,+
29 Because your exciting yourself against me+ and your roaring have come up into my ears.+And I shall certainly put my hook in your nose and my bridle between your lips,+And I shall indeed lead you back by the way by which you have come.”+
30 “‘And this will be the sign for you: There will be an eating this year of the growth from spilled kernels,+ and in the second year grain that shoots up of itself; but in the third year sow seed, YOU people, and reap, and plant vineyards and eat their fruitage.+
31 And those who escape of the house of Judah, those who are left remaining,+ will certainly take root downward and produce fruitage upward.+
32 For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go forth+ and those who escape out of Mount Zion.+ The very zeal of Jehovah of armies will do this.+
33 “‘Therefore this is what Jehovah has said concerning the king of As·syrʹi·a:+ “He will not come into this city,+ nor will he shoot an arrow there, nor confront it with a shield, nor cast up a siege rampart against it.”’+
34 “‘By the way by which he came he will return, and into this city he will not come,’ is the utterance of Jehovah.+
35 ‘And I shall certainly defend+ this city to save it for my own sake+ and for the sake of David my servant.’”+
36 And the angel+ of Jehovah proceeded to go forth and strike down a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the As·syrʹi·ans.+ When people rose up early in the morning, why, there all of them were dead carcasses.+
37 Hence Sen·nachʹer·ib+ the king of As·syrʹi·a pulled away and went and returned+ and took up dwelling in Ninʹe·veh.+
38 And it came about that as he was bowing down at the house of Nisʹroch+ his god,*+ A·dramʹme·lech and Shar·eʹzer, his own sons, struck him down with the sword,+ and they themselves escaped to the land of Arʹa·rat.*+ And Eʹsar-hadʹdon+ his son began to reign in place of him.
Footnotes
^ Or, “elders.”
^ “Your God.” Heb., ʼElo·heyʹkha.
^ “His lord.” Heb., ʼadho·navʹ, pl. of ʼa·dhohnʹ, to denote excellence.
^ “The living God.” Heb., ʼElo·himʹ chai; the adjective chai, “living,” is sing., although ʼElo·himʹ is pl.
^ “Ethiopia,” Vg; LXX, “the Ethiopians”; MTSy, “Cush.”
^ See vs 4 ftn, “Living God.”
^ Or, “not God.” Heb., loʼ ʼelo·himʹ.
^ One of 134 scribal changes from YHWH to ʼAdho·naiʹ. See App 1B.
^ “Grass of the roofs, which is scorched before the east wind. (28) Your rising up,” 1QIsa.
^ “His god.” Heb., ʼelo·havʹ, pl. of ʼelohʹah, to denote the excellence of “Nisroch,” the false god.
^ “Land of Ararat,” MVg; TSy, “land of Kardo”; LXX, “Armenia.”
