Isaiah 21-44

World English Bible

21 The burden of the wilderness of the sea.

As whirlwinds in the South sweep through, it comes from the wilderness, from an awesome land. ² A grievous vision is declared to me. The treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam; attack! I have stopped all of Media’s sighing. ³ Therefore my thighs are filled with anguish. Pains have seized me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am in so much pain that I can’t hear. I am so dismayed that I can’t see. ⁴ My heart flutters. Horror has frightened me. The twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling for me. ⁵ They prepare the table. They set the watch. They eat. They drink. Rise up, you princes, oil the shield! ⁶ For the Lord said to me, “Go, set a watchman. Let him declare what he sees. ⁷ When he sees a troop, horsemen in pairs, a troop of donkeys, a troop of camels, he shall listen diligently with great attentiveness.” ⁸ He cried like a lion: “Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime, and every night I stay at my post. ⁹ Behold, here comes a troop of men, horsemen in pairs.” He answered, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the engraved images of her gods are broken to the ground.

¹⁰ You are my threshing, and the grain of my floor!” That which I have heard from Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, I have declared to you.

¹¹ The burden of Dumah.

One calls to me out of Seir, “Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?” ¹² The watchman said, “The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire. Come back again.”

¹³ The burden on Arabia.

In the forest in Arabia you will lodge, you caravans of Dedanites. ¹⁴ They brought water to him who was thirsty. The inhabitants of the land of Tema met the fugitives with their bread. ¹⁵ For they fled away from the swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, and from the heat of battle. ¹⁶ For the Lord said to me, “Within a year, as a worker bound by contract would count it, all the glory of Kedar will fail, ¹⁷ and the residue of the number of the archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, will be few; for Yahweh, the God of Israel, has spoken it.”

22 The burden of the valley of vision.

What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops? ² You that are full of shouting, a tumultuous city, a joyous town; your slain are not slain with the sword, neither are they dead in battle. ³ All your rulers fled away together. They were bound by the archers. All who were found by you were bound together. They fled far away. ⁴ Therefore I said, “Look away from me. I will weep bitterly. Don’t labor to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁵ For it is a day of confusion, and of treading down, and of perplexity, from the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, in the valley of vision, a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains.” ⁶ Elam carried his quiver, with chariots of men and horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield. ⁷ Your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen set themselves in array at the gate. ⁸ He took away the covering of Judah; and you looked in that day to the armor in the house of the forest. ⁹ You saw the breaches of David’s city, that they were many; and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool. ¹⁰ You counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. ¹¹ You also made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you didn’t look to him who had done this, neither did you have respect for him who planned it long ago.

¹² In that day, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, called to weeping, to mourning, to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth; ¹³ and behold, joy and gladness, killing cattle and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine: “Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die.” ¹⁴ Yahweh of Armies revealed himself in my ears, “Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die,” says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.

¹⁵ The Lord, Yahweh of Armies says, “Go, get yourself to this treasurer, even to Shebna, who is over the house, and say, ¹⁶ ‘What are you doing here? Who has you here, that you have dug out a tomb here?’ Cutting himself out a tomb on high, chiseling a habitation for himself in the rock!” ¹⁷ Behold, Yahweh will overcome you and hurl you away violently. Yes, he will grasp you firmly. ¹⁸ He will surely wind you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a large country. There you will die, and there the chariots of your glory will be, you disgrace of your lord’s house. ¹⁹ I will thrust you from your office. You will be pulled down from your station.

²⁰ It will happen in that day that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, ²¹ and I will clothe him with your robe, and strengthen him with your belt. I will commit your government into his hand; and he will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. ²² I will lay the key of David’s house on his shoulder. He will open, and no one will shut. He will shut, and no one will open. ²³ I will fasten him like a nail in a sure place. He will be for a throne of glory to his father’s house. ²⁴ They will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the issue, every small vessel, from the cups even to all the pitchers. ²⁵ “In that day,” says Yahweh of Armies, “the nail that was fastened in a sure place will give way. It will be cut down and fall. The burden that was on it will be cut off, for Yahweh has spoken it.”

23 The burden of Tyre.

Howl, you ships of Tarshish! For it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in. From the land of Kittim it is revealed to them. ² Be still, you inhabitants of the coast, you whom the merchants of Sidon that pass over the sea have replenished. ³ On great waters, the seed of the Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue. She was the market of nations. ⁴ Be ashamed, Sidon; for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying, “I have not travailed, nor given birth, neither have I nourished young men, nor brought up virgins.” ⁵ When the report comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish at the report of Tyre. ⁶ Pass over to Tarshish! Wail, you inhabitants of the coast! ⁷ Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days, whose feet carried her far away to travel?

⁸ Who has planned this against Tyre, the giver of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the honorable of the earth? ⁹ Yahweh of Armies has planned it, to stain the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth. ¹⁰ Pass through your land like the Nile, daughter of Tarshish. There is no restraint any more. ¹¹ He has stretched out his hand over the sea. He has shaken the kingdoms. Yahweh has ordered the destruction of Canaan’s strongholds. ¹² He said, “You shall rejoice no more, you oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon. Arise, pass over to Kittim. Even there you will have no rest.”

¹³ Behold, the land of the Chaldeans. This people didn’t exist. The Assyrians founded it for those who dwell in the wilderness. They set up their towers. They overthrew its palaces. They made it a ruin. ¹⁴ Howl, you ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is laid waste! ¹⁵ It will come to pass in that day that Tyre will be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king. After the end of seventy years it will be to Tyre like in the song of the prostitute. ¹⁶ Take a harp; go about the city, you prostitute that has been forgotten. Make sweet melody. Sing many songs, that you may be remembered. ¹⁷ It will happen after the end of seventy years that Yahweh will visit Tyre. She will return to her wages, and will play the prostitute with all the kingdoms of the world on the surface of the earth. ¹⁸ Her merchandise and her wages will be holiness to Yahweh. It will not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise will be for those who dwell before Yahweh, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.

24 Behold, Yahweh makes the earth empty, makes it waste, turns it upside down, and scatters its inhabitants. ² It will be as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the creditor, so with the debtor; as with the taker of interest, so with the giver of interest. ³ The earth will be utterly emptied and utterly laid waste; for Yahweh has spoken this word. ⁴ The earth mourns and fades away. The world languishes and fades away. The lofty people of the earth languish. ⁵ The earth also is polluted under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant. ⁶ Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell therein are found guilty. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left. ⁷ The new wine mourns. The vine languishes. All the merry-hearted sigh. ⁸ The mirth of tambourines ceases. The sound of those who rejoice ends. The joy of the harp ceases. ⁹ They will not drink wine with a song. Strong drink will be bitter to those who drink it. ¹⁰ The confused city is broken down. Every house is shut up, that no man may come in. ¹¹ There is a crying in the streets because of the wine. All joy is darkened. The mirth of the land is gone. ¹² The city is left in desolation, and the gate is struck with destruction. ¹³ For it will be so within the earth among the peoples, as the shaking of an olive tree, as the gleanings when the vintage is done.

¹⁴ These shall lift up their voice. They will shout for the majesty of Yahweh. They cry aloud from the sea. ¹⁵ Therefore glorify Yahweh in the east, even the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea! ¹⁶ From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs. Glory to the righteous!

But I said, “I pine away! I pine away! woe is me!” The treacherous have dealt treacherously. Yes, the treacherous have dealt very treacherously. ¹⁷ Fear, the pit, and the snare, are on you who inhabit the earth. ¹⁸ It will happen that he who flees from the noise of the fear will fall into the pit; and he who comes up out of the middle of the pit will be taken in the snare; for the windows on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble. ¹⁹ The earth is utterly broken. The earth is torn apart. The earth is shaken violently. ²⁰ The earth will stagger like a drunken man, and will sway back and forth like a hammock. Its disobedience will be heavy on it, and it will fall and not rise again.

²¹ It will happen in that day that Yahweh will punish the army of the high ones on high, and the kings of the earth on the earth. ²² They will be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and will be shut up in the prison; and after many days they will be visited. ²³ Then the moon will be confounded, and the sun ashamed; for Yahweh of Armies will reign on Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem; and glory will be before his elders.

25 Yahweh, you are my God. I will exalt you! I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago, in complete faithfulness and truth. ² For you have made a city into a heap, a fortified city into a ruin, a palace of strangers to be no city. It will never be built. ³ Therefore a strong people will glorify you. A city of awesome nations will fear you. ⁴ For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, when the blast of the dreaded ones is like a storm against the wall. ⁵ As the heat in a dry place you will bring down the noise of strangers; as the heat by the shade of a cloud, the song of the dreaded ones will be brought low.

⁶ In this mountain, Yahweh of Armies will make all peoples a feast of choice meat,^[a] a feast of choice wines, of choice meat full of marrow, of well refined choice wines. ⁷ He will destroy in this mountain the surface of the covering that covers all peoples, and the veil that is spread over all nations. ⁸ He has swallowed up death forever! The Lord Yahweh will wipe away tears from off all faces. He will take the reproach of his people away from off all the earth, for Yahweh has spoken it.

⁹ It shall be said in that day, “Behold, this is our God! We have waited for him, and he will save us! This is Yahweh! We have waited for him. We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation!” ¹⁰ For Yahweh’s hand will rest in this mountain.

Moab will be trodden down in his place, even like straw is trodden down in the water of the dunghill. ¹¹ He will spread out his hands in the middle of it, like one who swims spreads out hands to swim, but his pride will be humbled together with the craft of his hands. ¹² He has brought the high fortress of your walls down, laid low, and brought to the ground, even to the dust.

26 In that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

27 In that day, Yahweh with his hard and great and strong sword will punish leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and leviathan the twisted serpent; and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea.

² In that day, sing to her, “A pleasant vineyard! ³ I, Yahweh, am its keeper. I will water it every moment. Lest anyone damage it, I will keep it night and day. ⁴ Wrath is not in me, but if I should find briers and thorns, I would do battle! I would march on them and I would burn them together. ⁵ Or else let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me. Let him make peace with me.”

⁶ In days to come, Jacob will take root. Israel will blossom and bud. They will fill the surface of the world with fruit. ⁷ Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? Or are they killed like those who killed them were killed? ⁸ In measure, when you send them away, you contend with them. He has removed them with his rough blast in the day of the east wind. ⁹ Therefore by this the iniquity of Jacob will be forgiven, and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: that he makes all the stones of the altar as chalk stones that are beaten in pieces, so that the Asherah poles and the incense altars shall rise no more. ¹⁰ For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness. The calf will feed there, and there he will lie down, and consume its branches. ¹¹ When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding. Therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favor.

¹² It will happen in that day that Yahweh will thresh from the flowing stream of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt; and you will be gathered one by one, children of Israel.

¹³ It will happen in that day that a great trumpet will be blown; and those who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and those who were outcasts in the land of Egypt, shall come; and they will worship Yahweh in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

28 Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley of those who are overcome with wine! ² Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one. Like a storm of hail, a destroying storm, and like a storm of mighty waters overflowing, he will cast them down to the earth with his hand. ³ The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden under foot. ⁴ The fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley, shall be like the first-ripe fig before the summer; which someone picks and eats as soon as he sees it. ⁵ In that day, Yahweh of Armies will become a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty to the residue of his people, ⁶ and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

⁷ They also reel with wine, and stagger with strong drink. The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink. They are swallowed up by wine. They stagger with strong drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment. ⁸ For all tables are completely full of filthy vomit and filthiness.

⁹ Whom will he teach knowledge? To whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts? ¹⁰ For it is precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little.

¹¹ But he will speak to this nation with stammering lips and in another language, ¹² to whom he said, “This is the resting place. Give rest to the weary,” and “This is the refreshing;” yet they would not hear. ¹³ Therefore Yahweh’s word will be to them precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little; that they may go, fall backward, be broken, be snared, and be taken.

¹⁴ Therefore hear Yahweh’s word, you scoffers, that rule this people in Jerusalem: ¹⁵ “Because you have said, ‘We have made a covenant with death, and we are in agreement with Sheol.^[b] When the overflowing scourge passes through, it won’t come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and we have hidden ourselves under falsehood.’” ¹⁶ Therefore the Lord Yahweh says, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not act hastily. ¹⁷ I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place. ¹⁸ Your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol^[c] shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge passes through, then you will be trampled down by it. ¹⁹ As often as it passes through, it will seize you; for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be nothing but terror to understand the message.” ²⁰ For the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the blanket is too narrow to wrap oneself in. ²¹ For Yahweh will rise up as on Mount Perazim. He will be angry as in the valley of Gibeon; that he may do his work, his unusual work, and bring to pass his act, his extraordinary act. ²² Now therefore don’t be scoffers, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, on the whole earth.

²³ Give ear, and hear my voice! Listen, and hear my speech! ²⁴ Does he who plows to sow plow continually? Does he keep turning the soil and breaking the clods? ²⁵ When he has leveled its surface, doesn’t he plant the dill, and scatter the cumin seed, and put in the wheat in rows, the barley in the appointed place, and the spelt in its place? ²⁶ For his God instructs him in right judgment and teaches him. ²⁷ For the dill are not threshed with a sharp instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned over the cumin; but the dill is beaten out with a stick, and the cumin with a rod. ²⁸ Bread flour must be ground; so he will not always be threshing it. Although he drives the wheel of his threshing cart over it, his horses don’t grind it. ²⁹ This also comes out from Yahweh of Armies, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in wisdom.

29 Woe to Ariel! Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts come around; ² then I will distress Ariel, and there will be mourning and lamentation. She shall be to me as an altar hearth.^{[d] 3} I will encamp against you all around you, and will lay siege against you with posted troops. I will raise siege works against you. ⁴ You will be brought down, and will speak out of the ground. Your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will be as of one who has a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and your speech will whisper out of the dust.

⁵ But the multitude of your foes will be like fine dust, and the multitude of the ruthless ones like chaff that blows away. Yes, it will be in an instant, suddenly. ⁶ She will be visited by Yahweh of Armies with thunder, with earthquake, with great noise, with whirlwind and storm, and with the flame of a devouring fire. ⁷ The multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, will be like a dream, a vision of the night. ⁸ It will be like when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he eats; but he awakes, and his hunger isn’t satisfied; or like when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and behold, he is faint, and he is still thirsty. The multitude of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion will be like that.

⁹ Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. ¹⁰ For Yahweh has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, the prophets; and he has covered your heads, the seers. ¹¹ All vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is educated, saying, “Read this, please;” and he says, “I can’t, for it is sealed;” ¹² and the book is delivered to one who is not educated, saying, “Read this, please;” and he says, “I can’t read.”

¹³ The Lord said, “Because this people draws near with their mouth and honors me with their lips, but they have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which has been taught; ¹⁴ therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their prudent men will be hidden.”

¹⁵ Woe to those who deeply hide their counsel from Yahweh, and whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us?” and “Who knows us?” ¹⁶ You turn things upside down! Should the potter be thought to be like clay; that the thing made should say about him who made it, “He didn’t make me;” or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding?”

¹⁷ Isn’t it yet a very little while, and Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be regarded as a forest? ¹⁸ In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness. ¹⁹ The humble also will increase their joy in Yahweh, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. ²⁰ For the ruthless is brought to nothing, and the scoffer ceases, and all those who are alert to do evil are cut off— ²¹ who cause a person to be indicted by a word, and lay a snare for one who reproves in the gate, and who deprive the innocent of justice with false testimony.

²² Therefore Yahweh, who redeemed Abraham, says concerning the house of Jacob: “Jacob shall no longer be ashamed, neither shall his face grow pale. ²³ But when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in the middle of him, they will sanctify my name. Yes, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel. ²⁴ They also who err in spirit will come to understanding, and those who grumble will receive instruction.”

30 “Woe to the rebellious children”, says Yahweh, “who take counsel, but not from me; and who make an alliance, but not with my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin, ² who set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked my advice, to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt! ³ Therefore the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. ⁴ For their princes are at Zoan, and their ambassadors have come to Hanes. ⁵ They shall all be ashamed because of a people that can’t profit them, that are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.”

⁶ The burden of the animals of the South.

Through the land of trouble and anguish, of the lioness and the lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to an unprofitable people. ⁷ For Egypt helps in vain, and to no purpose; therefore I have called her Rahab who sits still. ⁸ Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever. ⁹ For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear Yahweh’s law; ¹⁰ who tell the seers, “Don’t see!” and the prophets, “Don’t prophesy to us right things. Tell us pleasant things. Prophesy deceits. ¹¹ Get out of the way. Turn away from the path. Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.” ¹² Therefore the Holy One of Israel says, “Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely on it, ¹³ therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant. ¹⁴ He will break it as a potter’s vessel is broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing, so that there won’t be found among the broken pieces a piece good enough to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.”

¹⁵ For thus said the Lord Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, “You will be saved in returning and rest. Your strength will be in quietness and in confidence.” You refused, ¹⁶ but you said, “No, for we will flee on horses;” therefore you will flee; and, “We will ride on the swift;” therefore those who pursue you will be swift. ¹⁷ One thousand will flee at the threat of one. At the threat of five, you will flee until you are left like a beacon on the top of a mountain, and like a banner on a hill.

¹⁸ Therefore Yahweh will wait, that he may be gracious to you; and therefore he will be exalted, that he may have mercy on you, for Yahweh is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him. ¹⁹ For the people will dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. You will weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the voice of your cry. When he hears you, he will answer you. ²⁰ Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers won’t be hidden any more, but your eyes will see your teachers; ²¹ and when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way. Walk in it.” ²² You shall defile the overlaying of your engraved images of silver, and the plating of your molten images of gold. You shall cast them away as an unclean thing. You shall tell it, “Go away!”

²³ He will give the rain for your seed, with which you will sow the ground; and bread of the increase of the ground will be rich and plentiful. In that day, your livestock will feed in large pastures. ²⁴ The oxen likewise and the young donkeys that till the ground will eat savory feed, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fork. ²⁵ There will be brooks and streams of water on every lofty mountain and on every high hill in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. ²⁶ Moreover the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, in the day that Yahweh binds up the fracture of his people, and heals the wound they were struck with.

²⁷ Behold, Yahweh’s name comes from far away, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke. His lips are full of indignation. His tongue is as a devouring fire. ²⁸ His breath is as an overflowing stream that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction. A bridle that leads to ruin will be in the jaws of the peoples. ²⁹ You will have a song, as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a flute to come to Yahweh’s mountain, to Israel’s Rock. ³⁰ Yahweh will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and will show the descent of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and the flame of a devouring fire, with a blast, storm, and hailstones. ³¹ For through Yahweh’s voice the Assyrian will be dismayed. He will strike him with his rod. ³² Every stroke of the rod of punishment, which Yahweh will lay on him, will be with the sound of tambourines and harps. He will fight with them in battles, brandishing weapons. ³³ For his burning place has long been ready. Yes, it is prepared for the king. He has made its pyre deep and large with fire and much wood. Yahweh’s breath, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.

⁸ “The Assyrian will fall by the sword, not of man;

36 Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all of the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. ² The king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to king Hezekiah with a large army. He stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool in the fuller’s field highway. ³ Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder came out to him.

⁴ Rabshakeh said to them, “Now tell Hezekiah, ‘The great king, the king of Assyria, says, “What confidence is this in which you trust? ⁵ I say that your counsel and strength for the war are only vain words. Now in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me? ⁶ Behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even in Egypt, which if a man leans on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. ⁷ But if you tell me, ‘We trust in Yahweh our God,’ isn’t that he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar?’” ⁸ Now therefore, please make a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. ⁹ How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? ¹⁰ Have I come up now without Yahweh against this land to destroy it? Yahweh said to me, “Go up against this land, and destroy it.”’”

¹¹ Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Don’t speak to us in the Jews’ language in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”

¹² But Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you, to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?” ¹³ Then Rabshakeh stood, and called out with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! ¹⁴ The king says, ‘Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you; for he will not be able to deliver you. ¹⁵ Don’t let Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh, saying, “Yahweh will surely deliver us. This city won’t be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”’ ¹⁶ Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for the king of Assyria says, ‘Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and each of you eat from his vine, and each one from his fig tree, and each one of you drink the waters of his own cistern; ¹⁷ until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. ¹⁸ Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, “Yahweh will deliver us.” Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria? ¹⁹ Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand? ²⁰ Who are they among all the gods of these countries that have delivered their country out of my hand, that Yahweh should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”

²¹ But they remained silent, and said nothing in reply, for the king’s commandment was, “Don’t answer him.”

²² Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

37 When king Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into Yahweh’s house. ² He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. ³ They said to him, “Hezekiah says, ‘Today is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to give birth. ⁴ It may be Yahweh your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’”

⁵ So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

⁶ Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘Yahweh says, “Don’t be afraid 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 and he will hear news, and will return to his own land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.”’”

⁸ So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he heard that he had departed from Lachish. ⁹ He heard news concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “He has come out to fight against you.” When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰ “Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem won’t be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ¹¹ Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly. Shall you be delivered? ¹² Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar? ¹³ Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?’”

¹⁴ Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to Yahweh’s house, and spread it before Yahweh. ¹⁵ Hezekiah prayed to Yahweh, saying, ¹⁶ “Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, who is enthroned among the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. ¹⁷ Turn your ear, Yahweh, and hear. Open your eyes, Yahweh, and behold. Hear all of the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to defy the living God. ¹⁸ Truly, Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have destroyed all the countries and their land, ¹⁹ and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone; therefore they have destroyed them. ²⁰ Now therefore, Yahweh our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are Yahweh, even you only.”

²¹ Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Yahweh, the God of Israel says, ‘Because you have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, ²² this is the word which Yahweh has spoken concerning him. The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you. ²³ Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel. ²⁴ By your servants, you have defied the Lord, and have said, “With the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon. I will cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypress trees. I will enter into its farthest height, the forest of its fruitful field. ²⁵ I have dug and drunk water, and with the sole of my feet I will dry up all the rivers of Egypt.”

²⁶ “‘Have you not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it in ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be yours to destroy fortified cities, turning them into ruinous heaps. ²⁷ Therefore their inhabitants had little power. They were dismayed and confounded. They were like the grass of the field, and like the green herb, like the grass on the housetops, and like a field before its crop has grown. ²⁸ But I know your sitting down, your going out, your coming in, and your raging against me. ²⁹ Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance has come up into my ears, therefore I will put my hook in your nose and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came.

³⁰ “‘This shall be the sign to you. You will eat this year that which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs from it; and in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. ³¹ The remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah will again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. ³² For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go out, and survivors will escape from Mount Zion. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform this.’

³³ “Therefore Yahweh says concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither will he come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it. ³⁴ He will return the way that he came, and he won’t come to this city,’ says Yahweh. ³⁵ ‘For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.’”

³⁶ Then Yahweh’s angel went out and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. ³⁷ So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, went away, returned to Nineveh, and stayed there. ³⁸ As he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar Haddon his son reigned in his place.

38 In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him, “Yahweh says, ‘Set your house in order, for you will die, and not live.’”

² Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh, ³ and said, “Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight.” Then Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴ Then Yahweh’s word came to Isaiah, saying, ⁵ “Go, and tell Hezekiah, ‘Yahweh, the God of David your father, says, “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. ⁶ I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city. ⁷ This shall be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this thing that he has spoken. ⁸ Behold, I will cause the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down on the sundial of Ahaz with the sun, to return backward ten steps.”’” So the sun returned ten steps on the sundial on which it had gone down.

⁹ The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered of his sickness.

²¹ Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover.” ²² Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I will go up to Yahweh’s house?”

39 At that time, Merodach Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he heard that he had been sick, and had recovered. ² Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver, the gold, the spices, and the precious oil, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah didn’t show them. ³ Then Isaiah the prophet came to king Hezekiah, and asked him, “What did these men say? From where did they come to you?”

Hezekiah said, “They have come from a country far from me, even from Babylon.”

⁴ Then he asked, “What have they seen in your house?”

Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.”

⁵ Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of Yahweh of Armies: ⁶ ‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up until today, will be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left,’ says Yahweh. ⁷ ‘They will take away your sons who will issue from you, whom you shall father, and they will be eunuchs in the king of Babylon’s palace.’”

⁸ Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “Yahweh’s word which you have spoken is good.” He said moreover, “For there will be peace and truth in my days.”

40 “Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. ² “Speak comfortably to Jerusalem; and call out to her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received of Yahweh’s hand double for all her sins.”

¹⁴ Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel says: “For your sake, I have sent to Babylon, and I will bring all of them down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships of their rejoicing. ¹⁵ I am Yahweh, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.”

¹⁶ Yahweh, who makes a way in the sea,