Isaiah 37
Holman Christian Standard Bible
Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah’s Counsel
37 When King Hezekiah heard their report,(A) he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth,(B) and went to the Lord’s temple. 2 Then he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the court secretary, and the leading priests, who were wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. 3 They said to him, “This is what Hezekiah says: ‘Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace,(C) for children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to deliver them.(D) 4 Perhaps Yahweh your God will hear all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria sent to mock the living God,(E) and will rebuke him for the words that Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore offer a prayer for the surviving remnant.’”(F)
5 So the servants of King Hezekiah went to Isaiah, 6 who said to them, “Tell your master this, ‘The Lord says: Don’t be afraid(G) because of the words you have heard, which the king of Assyria’s attendants have blasphemed Me with.(H) 7 I am about to put a spirit(I) in him and he will hear a rumor and return to his own land, where I will cause him to fall by the sword.’”(J)
Sennacherib’s Letter
8 When the Rabshakeh heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish,(K) he returned and found him fighting against Libnah.(L) 9 The king had heard this about Tirhakah king of Cush:(M) “He has set out to fight against you.” So when he heard this, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10 “Say this to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Don’t let your God, whom you trust, deceive you(N) by promising that Jerusalem won’t be handed over to the king of Assyria. 11 Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries: they completely destroyed them. Will you be rescued? 12 Did the gods of the nations(O) that my predecessors destroyed rescue them—Gozan,(P) Haran,(Q) Rezeph, and the Edenites in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, or Ivvah?’”
Hezekiah’s Prayer
14 Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers, read it, then went up to the Lord’s temple and spread it out before the Lord.(R) 15 Then Hezekiah prayed(S) to the Lord:
16 Lord of Hosts, God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim,(T) You are God(U)—You alone(V)—of all the kingdoms of the earth.(W) You made the heavens and the earth.(X) 17 Listen closely, Lord, and hear;(Y) open Your eyes, Lord, and see.(Z) Hear all the words that Sennacherib has sent to mock the living God.(AA) 18 Lord, it is true that the kings of Assyria have devastated all these countries and their lands. 19 They have thrown their gods into the fire, for they were not gods(AB) but made by human hands(AC)—wood and stone.(AD) So they have destroyed them. 20 Now, Lord our God, save us from his power so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the Lord(AE)—You alone.(AF)
God’s Answer through Hezekiah
21 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “The Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Because you prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22 this is the word the Lord has spoken against him:
Virgin Daughter Zion(AG)
despises you and scorns you:
Daughter Jerusalem shakes her head(AH)
behind your back.[a]
23 Who is it you have mocked(AI) and blasphemed?
Who have you raised your voice against
and lifted your eyes in pride?(AJ)
Against the Holy One of Israel!(AK)
24 You have mocked the Lord through[b] your servants.
You have said, “With my many chariots(AL)
I have gone up to the heights of the mountains,
to the far recesses of Lebanon.
I cut down its tallest cedars,
its choice cypress trees.
I came to its distant heights,
its densest forest.
25 I dug wells[c] and drank water.
I dried up all the streams of Egypt
with the soles of my feet.”(AM)
26 Have you not heard?(AN)
I designed it long ago;
I planned it in days gone by.(AO)
I have now brought it to pass,
and you have crushed fortified cities(AP)
into piles of rubble.
27 Their inhabitants have become powerless,
dismayed, and ashamed.
They are plants of the field,
tender grass,
grass on the rooftops,
blasted by the east wind.[d]
28 But I know[e] your sitting down,
your going out and your coming in,(AQ)
and your raging against Me.
29 Because your raging against Me
and your arrogance have reached My ears,(AR)
I will put My hook in your nose(AS)
and My bit in your mouth;(AT)
I will make you go back
the way you came.
30 “‘This will be the sign for you:(AU) This year you will eat what grows on its own, and in the second year what grows from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 31 The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root(AV) downward and bear fruit upward. 32 For a remnant(AW) will go out from Jerusalem and survivors, from Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this.’(AX)
33 “Therefore, this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:
He will not enter this city
or shoot an arrow there
or come before it with a shield
or build up an assault ramp against it.
34 He will go back
the way he came,
and he will not enter this city.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
Defeat and Death of Sennacherib
36 Then(BA) the angel of the Lord(BB) went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! 37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and left. He returned home and lived in Nineveh.(BC)
38 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat.(BD) Then his son Esar-haddon(BE) became king in his place.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 37:22 Lit behind you
- Isaiah 37:24 Lit by the hand of
- Isaiah 37:25 DSS add in foreign lands
- Isaiah 37:27 DSS; MT reads rooftops, field before standing grain
- Isaiah 37:28 DSS read know your rising up and
Isaiah 37
Wycliffe Bible
37 And it was done, when king Hezekiah had heard, he rent his clothes, and he was wrapped in a sackcloth, and entered into the house of the Lord. (And it was done, when King Hezekiah had heard this, he tore his clothes, and wrapped himself in a sackcloth, and entered into the House of the Lord.)
2 And he sent Eliakim, that was on the house, and Shebna, the scribe, and the elder men of (the) priests, covered with sackcloths, to Isaiah, the prophet, the son of Amoz. (And he sent Eliakim, who was over the king’s household, and Shebna, the writer, or the royal secretary, and the elders of the priests, covered in sackcloths, to the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz.)
3 And they said to him, Hezekiah saith these things, A day of tribulation, and of anguish, and of chastising, and of blasphemy is this day; for children came unto childbearing, and strength of childbearing is not (for the child is ready to be born, but there is no strength for giving birth).
4 Therefore raise thou [up] prayer for the remnants (of our people) that be found, if in any manner thy Lord God (shall) hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyrians, his lord, sent, for to blaspheme [the] living God, and to despise by the words, which thy Lord God heard (and to punish them for the words which the Lord thy God himself hath heard).
5 And the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah;
6 and Isaiah said to them, Ye shall say these things to your lord, The Lord saith these things, Dread thou not of the face of [the] words which thou heardest, by which the servants of the king of Assyrians blasphemed me. (and Isaiah said to them, Ye shall say these things to your lord, The Lord saith these things, Fear thou not the words which thou hast heard, by which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.)
7 Lo! I shall give to him a spirit, and he shall hear a messenger; and he shall turn again to his land, and I shall make him to fall down by sword in his land.
8 Forsooth Rabshakeh turned again, and found the king of Assyrians fighting against Libnah; for he had heard, that the king was gone from Lachish. (And Rabshakeh turned back, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah; for he had heard, that the king had left Lachish.)
9 And (then) the king heard (from) messengers saying of Tirhakah, king of Ethiopians, He is gone out to fight against thee. And when he had heard this thing, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, and said,
10 Ye shall say, speaking these things to Hezekiah, king of Judah, Thy God deceive not thee, in whom thou trustest, and sayest, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyrians. (Ye shall say these things to Hezekiah, the king of Judah, Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee, by saying that Jerusalem shall not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.)
11 Lo! thou heardest all things which the kings of Assyrians did to all lands which they destroyed; and mayest thou be delivered? (Lo! thou hast heard of all the things which the kings of Assyria did to all the lands which they destroyed; and can thou alone be rescued, or saved?)
12 Whether the gods of folks delivered them, which my fathers destroyed (Did the gods of the nations whom my forefathers destroyed, save them); Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the sons of Eden, that were in Telassar?
13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena, and of Ivah?
14 And Hezekiah took the books from the hand of the messengers, and read them; and he went up into the house of the Lord, and spreaded abroad them before the Lord; (And Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers, and read it; and he went up into the House of the Lord, and spread it out before the Lord;)
15 and prayed to the Lord, and said,
16 Lord of hosts, God of Israel, that sittest on cherubim (Lord of hosts, God of Israel, who sittest between the cherubim), thou art God alone of all the realms of [the] earth; thou madest heaven and earth.
17 Lord, bow down thine ear, and hear; Lord, open thine eyes, and see; and hear thou all the words of Sennacherib, which he sent for to blaspheme (the) living God.
18 For verily, Lord, the kings of Assyrians made lands desert, and the countries of them, (For truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have made into desert, or laid waste, many lands, and all their countryside,)
19 and gave the gods of them to (the) fire; for they were not gods, but the works of men’s hands, wood and stones; and they all-brake those gods.
20 And now, our Lord God, save thou us from the hand of him; and all [the] realms of earth know, that thou art the Lord God alone. (And now, Lord our God, save thou us from his hand, or from his power; and then all the kingdoms of the earth shall know, that thou art the Lord God alone.)
21 And Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, and said, The Lord God of Israel saith these things, For which things thou prayedest me of Sennacherib, the king of Assyrians (the king of Assyria),
22 this is the word which the Lord spake on him, Thou virgin, the daughter of Zion, he despised thee, he scorned thee; thou virgin, the daughter of Jerusalem, he moved his head after thee. (this is the word which the Lord spoke about him, saying, O Sennacherib, the virgin, the daughter of Zion, despiseth thee, and she mocketh thee; the virgin, the daughter of Jerusalem, shaketh her head over thee.)
23 (But) Whom despisest thou, and whom blasphemedest thou? and on whom raisedest thou thy voice, and raisedest the highness of thine eyes? To the Holy of Israel. (For whom hast thou despised, and whom hast thou blasphemed? and against whom hast thou raised up thy voice, and raised up the highness of thine eyes? To the Holy One of Israel.)
24 By the hand of thy servants thou despisedest the Lord, and saidest, In the multitude of my carts (In the multitude of my chariots), I ascended [up]on the highnesses of (the) hills, on the yokes of Lebanon; and I shall cut down the high things of cedars thereof, and the chosen beeches thereof; and I shall enter into the highness of the top thereof, into the forest of Carmel thereof.
25 I digged, and drank water; and I made dry with the step of my foot all the strands of [the] fields.
26 Whether thou, Sennacherib, heardest not what things I did sometime? From eld days I formed that thing, and now I have brought (it to pass); and it is made into the drawing up by the root of (the) little hills fighting together, and of strong cities (In the old days, I formed that thing, and now I have brought it to pass; yea, bringing down strengthened cities into heaps of rubble).
27 The dwellers of those cities trembled together with hand made short, and be ashamed; they be made as hay of the field, and as the grass of [the] pasture, and as herb of house roofs, either ridges, that dried up before that it waxed ripe. (The inhabitants of those cities trembled together with shortened hand, or powerless, and were ashamed; they were made like the hay of the field, and like the grass of the pasture, and like the herbs on the rooftops, that dried up before that they could ripen.)
28 I knew thy dwelling (place), and thy going out, and thine entering (in), and thy strong vengeance against me.
29 When thou were wroth against me, thy pride ascended into mine ears; therefore I shall set a ring in thy nostrils, and a bridle in thy lips; and I shall lead thee into the way, by which thou camest. (When thou were angry against me, thy pride came into my ears; and so I shall set a ring in thy nose, and a bridle upon thy lips, and I shall lead thee back by the way, by which thou camest.)
30 Forsooth to thee, Hezekiah, this shall be a sign; eat thou in this year those things that grow by their free will, and in the second year eat thou apples; but in the third year, sow ye, and reap ye, and plant ye vineries (and plant ye vineyards), and eat ye the fruit of them.
31 And that that is saved of the house of Judah, and that, that is left, shall send [the] root beneath, and shall make fruit above;
32 for why (the) remnants (of the people) shall go out of Jerusalem, and salvation from the hill of Zion (and those who be saved, from Mount Zion); the fervent love of the Lord of hosts shall do this thing.
33 Therefore the Lord saith these things of the king of Assyrians, He shall not enter into this city, and he shall not shoot there an arrow; and a shield shall not occupy it, and he shall not send [an heap of] earth in the compass thereof. (And so the Lord saith these things about the king of Assyria, He shall not enter into this city, and he shall not shoot an arrow there; and he shall not occupy it with his shield, and he shall not build up a heap of earth all around it.)
34 In the way in which he came, he shall turn again by it (By the way in which he came, so he shall return); and he shall not enter into this city, saith the Lord.
35 And I shall defend this city, that I save it, for me, and for David, my servant. (And I shall defend this city, so that I save it, for me, and for my servant David.)
36 Forsooth the angel of the Lord went out, and killed an hundred thousand and fourscore and five thousand in the tents of (the) Assyrians; and they rose early, and lo! all men were [the] carrions of dead men (all the men were corpses).
37 And Sennacherib went out of Judah, and went away. And Sennacherib, the king of Assyrians, turned again, and dwelled in Nineveh (And Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, returned home, and lived in Nineveh).
38 And it was done, when he worshipped Nisroch, his god, in the temple, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, killed him with sword, and fled into the land of Ararat, that is, Armenia; and Esarhaddon, his son, reigned for him.
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2001 by Terence P. Noble