Bible in 90 Days

29 Woe to Jerusalem,^[a] the city of David. Year after year you make your many offerings, ² but I will send heavy judgment upon you, and there will be weeping and sorrow. For Jerusalem shall become as her name “Ariel” means—an altar covered with blood. ³ I will be your enemy. I will surround Jerusalem and lay siege against it, and build forts around it to destroy it. ⁴ Your voice will whisper like a ghost from the earth where you lie buried.

⁵ But suddenly your ruthless enemies will be driven away like chaff before the wind. ⁶ In an instant, I, the Lord of Hosts, will come upon them with thunder, earthquake, whirlwind, and fire. ⁷ And all the nations fighting Jerusalem will vanish like a dream! ⁸ As a hungry man dreams of eating but is still hungry, and as a thirsty man dreams of drinking but is still faint from thirst when he wakes up, so your enemies will dream of victorious conquest, but all to no avail.

⁹ You are amazed, incredulous? You don’t believe it? Then go ahead and be blind if you must! You are stupid—and not from drinking, either! Stagger, and not from wine! ¹⁰ For the Lord has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep. He has closed the eyes of your prophets and seers, ¹¹ so all of these future events are a sealed book to them. When you give it to one who can read, he says, “I can’t, for it’s sealed.” ¹² When you give it to another, he says, “Sorry, I can’t read.”

¹³ And so the Lord says, “Since these people say they are mine but they do not obey me, and since their worship amounts to mere words learned by rote, ¹⁴ therefore I will take awesome vengeance on these hypocrites and make their wisest counselors as fools.”

¹⁵ Woe to those who try to hide their plans from God, who try to keep him in the dark concerning what they do! “God can’t see us,” they say to themselves. “He doesn’t know what is going on!” ¹⁶ How stupid can they be! Isn’t he, the Potter, greater than you, the jars he makes? Will you say to him, “He didn’t make us”? Does a machine call its inventor dumb?

¹⁷ Soon—and it will not be very long—the wilderness of Lebanon will be a fruitful field again, a lush and fertile forest. ¹⁸ In that day the deaf will hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the blind will see my plans. ¹⁹ The meek will be filled with fresh joy from the Lord, and the poor shall exult in the Holy One of Israel. ²⁰ Bullies will vanish and scoffers will cease, and all those plotting evil will be killed— ²¹ the violent man who fights at the drop of a hat, the man who waits in hiding to beat up the judge who sentenced him, and the men who use any excuse to be unfair.

²² That is why the Lord who redeemed Abraham says: “My people will no longer pale with fear or be ashamed. ²³ For when they see the surging birthrate and the expanding economy,^[b] then they will fear and rejoice in my name; they will praise the Holy One of Israel and stand in awe of him. ²⁴ Those in error will believe the truth, and complainers will be willing to be taught!

30 Woe to my rebellious children, says the Lord; you ask advice from everyone but me and decide to do what I don’t want you to do. You yoke yourselves with unbelievers, thus piling up your sins. ² For without consulting me you have gone down to Egypt to find aid and have put your trust in Pharaoh for his protection.^{[c] 3} But in trusting Pharaoh, you will be disappointed, humiliated and disgraced, for he can’t deliver on his promises to save you. ⁴ For though his power extends to Zoan and Hanes, ⁵ yet it will all turn out to your shame—he won’t help one little bit!

⁶ See them moving slowly across the terrible desert to Egypt—donkeys and camels laden down with treasure to pay for Egypt’s aid. On through the badlands they go, where lions and swift venomous snakes live—and Egypt will give you nothing in return! ⁷ For Egypt’s promises are worthless! “The Reluctant Dragon,”^[d] I call her!

⁸ Now go and write down this word of mine concerning Egypt, so that it will stand until the end of time, forever and forever, as an indictment of Israel’s unbelief. ⁹ For if you don’t write it, they will claim I never warned them. “Oh no,” they’ll say, “you never told us that!”

For they are stubborn rebels. ^10-11 They tell my prophets, “Shut up—we don’t want any more of your reports!” Or they say, “Don’t tell us the truth; tell us nice things; tell us lies. Forget all this gloom; we’ve heard more than enough about your ‘Holy One of Israel’ and all he says.”

¹² This is the reply of the Holy One of Israel:

Because you despise what I tell you and trust instead in frauds and lies and won’t repent, ¹³ therefore calamity will come upon you suddenly, as upon a bulging wall that bursts and falls; in one moment it comes crashing down. ¹⁴ God will smash you like a broken dish; he will not act sparingly. Not a piece will be left large enough to use for carrying coals from the hearth, or a little water from the well. ¹⁵ For the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, says: Only in returning to me and waiting for me will you be saved; in quietness and confidence is your strength; but you’ll have none of this.

¹⁶ “No,” you say. “We will get our help from Egypt; they will give us swift horses for riding to battle.” But the only swiftness you are going to see is the swiftness of your enemies chasing you! ¹⁷ One of them will chase a thousand of you! Five of them will scatter you until not two of you are left together. You will be like lonely trees on the distant mountaintops. ¹⁸ Yet the Lord still waits for you to come to him so he can show you his love; he will conquer you to bless you, just as he said. For the Lord is faithful to his promises. Blessed are all those who wait for him to help them.

¹⁹ O my people in Jerusalem, you shall weep no more, for he will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. He will answer you. ²⁰ Though he give you the bread of adversity and water of affliction, yet he will be with you to teach you—with your own eyes you will see your Teacher. ²¹ And if you leave God’s paths and go astray, you will hear a voice behind you say, “No, this is the way; walk here.” ²² And you will destroy all your silver idols and gold images and cast them out like filthy things you hate to touch. “Ugh!” you’ll say to them. “Be gone!”

²³ Then God will bless you with rain at planting time and with wonderful harvests and with ample pastures for your cows. ²⁴ The oxen and young donkeys that till the ground will eat grain, its chaff blown away by the wind. ²⁵ In that day when God steps in to destroy your enemies, he will give you streams of water flowing down each mountain and every hill. ²⁶ The moon will be as bright as the sun, and the sunlight brighter than seven days! So it will be when the Lord begins to heal his people and to cure the wounds he gave them.

²⁷ See, the Lord comes from afar, aflame with wrath, surrounded by thick rising smoke. His lips are filled with fury; his words consume like fire. ²⁸ His wrath pours out like floods upon them all, to sweep them all away. He will sift out the proud nations and bridle them and lead them off to their doom.

²⁹ But the people of God will sing a song of solemn joy, like songs in the night when holy feasts are held; his people will have gladness of heart, as when a flutist leads a pilgrim band to Jerusalem to the mountain of the Lord, the Rock of Israel. ³⁰ And the Lord shall cause his majestic voice to be heard and shall crush down his mighty arm upon his enemies with angry indignation and devouring flames, with tornados, terrible storms, and huge hailstones. ³¹ The voice of the Lord shall punish the Assyrians, who had been his rod of punishment. ³² And when the Lord smites them, his people will rejoice with music and song. ³³ The funeral pyre has long been ready, prepared for Molech, the Assyrian god; it is piled high with wood. The breath of the Lord, like fire from a volcano, will set it all on fire.

31 Woe to those who run to Egypt for help, trusting their mighty cavalry and chariots instead of looking to the Holy One of Israel and consulting him. ² In his wisdom, he will send great evil on his people and will not change his mind. He will rise against them for the evil they have done and crush their allies too. ³ For these Egyptians are mere men, not God! Their horses are puny flesh, not mighty spirits! When the Lord clenches his fist against them, they will stumble and fall among those they are trying to help. All will fail together.

^4-5 But the Lord has told me this: When a lion, even a young one, kills a sheep, he pays no attention to the shepherd’s shouts and noise. He goes right on and eats. In such manner the Lord will come and fight upon Mount Zion. He will not be frightened away! He, the Lord Almighty, will hover over Jerusalem as birds hover round their nests, and he will defend the city and deliver it.

⁶ Therefore, O my people, though you are such wicked rebels, come, return to God. ⁷ I know the glorious day will come when every one of you will throw away his gold idols and silver images—which in your sinfulness you have made.

⁸ The Assyrians will be destroyed, but not by swords of men. The “sword of God” will smite them. They will panic and flee, and the strong young Assyrians will be taken away as slaves. ⁹ Even their generals will quake with terror and flee when they see the battle flags of Israel, says the Lord. For the flame of God burns brightly in Jerusalem.

32 Look, a righteous King is coming, with honest princes! ² He will shelter Israel from the storm and wind. He will refresh her as a river in the desert and as the cooling shadow of a mighty rock within a hot and weary land. ³ Then at last the eyes of Israel will open wide to God; his people will listen to his voice. ⁴ Even the hotheads among them will be full of sense and understanding, and those who stammer in uncertainty will speak out plainly.

⁵ In those days the ungodly, the atheists, will not be heroes! Wealthy cheaters will not be spoken of as generous, outstanding men! ⁶ Everyone will recognize an evil man when he sees him, and hypocrites will fool no one at all. Their lies about God and their cheating of the hungry will be plain for all to see. ⁷ The smooth tricks of evil men will be exposed, as will all the lies they use to oppress the poor in the courts. ⁸ But good men will be generous to others and will be blessed of God for all they do.

⁹ Listen, you women who loll around in lazy ease; listen to me and I will tell you your reward: ¹⁰ In a short time—in just a little more than a year—suddenly you’ll care, O careless ones. For the crops of fruit will fail; the harvest will not take place. ¹¹ Tremble, O women of ease; throw off your unconcern. Strip off your pretty clothes—wear sackcloth for your grief. ¹² Beat your breasts in sorrow for those bountiful farms of yours that will soon be gone, and for those fruitful vines of other years. ¹³ For your lands will thrive with thorns and briars; your joyous homes and happy cities will be gone. ¹⁴ Palaces and mansions will all be deserted, the crowded cities empty. Wild herds of donkeys and goats will graze upon the mountains where the watchtowers are, ¹⁵ until at last the Spirit is poured down on us from heaven. Then once again enormous crops will come. ¹⁶ Then justice will rule through all the land, ¹⁷ and out of justice, peace. Quietness and confidence will reign forever more.

¹⁸ My people will live in safety, quietly at home, ¹⁹ but the Assyrians^[e] will be destroyed and their cities laid low. ²⁰ And God will greatly bless his people. Wherever they plant, bountiful crops will spring up, and their flocks and herds will graze in green pastures.

33 Woe to you, Assyrians,^[f] who have destroyed everything around you but have never felt destruction for yourselves. You expect others to respect their promises to you, while you betray them! Now you, too, will be betrayed and destroyed.

² But to us, O Lord, be merciful, for we have waited for you. Be our strength each day and our salvation in the time of trouble. ³ The enemy runs at the sound of your voice. When you stand up, the nations flee. ⁴ Just as locusts strip the fields and vines, so Jerusalem will strip the fallen army of Assyria!^[g]

⁵ The Lord is very great and lives in heaven. He will make Jerusalem the home of justice and goodness and righteousness. ⁶ An abundance of salvation is stored up for Judah in a safe place, along with wisdom and knowledge and reverence for God.

⁷ But now your ambassadors weep in bitter disappointment, for Assyria has refused their cry for peace. ⁸ Your roads lie in ruins; travelers detour on back roads. The Assyrians have broken their peace pact^[h] and care nothing for the promises they made in the presence of witnesses—they have no respect for anyone. ⁹ All the land of Israel is in trouble; Lebanon has been destroyed; Sharon has become a wilderness; Bashan and Carmel are plundered.

¹⁰ But the Lord says: I will stand up and show my power and might. ¹¹ You Assyrians will gain nothing by all your efforts. Your own breath will turn to fire and kill you. ¹² Your armies will be burned to lime, like thorns cut down and tossed in the fire. ¹³ Listen to what I have done, O nations far away! And you that are near, acknowledge my might!

¹⁴ The sinners among my people shake with fear. “Which one of us,” they cry, “can live here in the presence of this all-consuming, everlasting fire?” ¹⁵ I will tell you who can live here: All who are honest and fair, who reject making profit by fraud, who hold back their hands from taking bribes, who refuse to listen to those who plot murder, who shut their eyes to all enticement to do wrong. ¹⁶ Such as these shall dwell on high. The rocks of the mountains will be their fortress of safety; food will be supplied to them, and they will have all the water they need.

¹⁷ Your eyes will see the King in his beauty and the highlands of heaven far away. ¹⁸ Your mind will think back to this time of terror when the Assyrian officers outside your walls are counting your towers and estimating how much they will get from your fallen city. ¹⁹ But soon they will all be gone. These fierce, violent people with a strange, jabbering language you can’t understand will disappear.

²⁰ Instead you will see Jerusalem at peace, a place where God is worshiped, a city quiet and unmoved. ²¹ The glorious Lord will be to us as a wide river of protection, and no enemy can cross. ²² For the Lord is our Judge, our Lawgiver and our King; he will care for us and save us. ²³ The enemies’ sails hang loose on broken masts with useless tackle. Their treasure will be divided by the people of God; even the lame will win their share. ²⁴ The people of Israel will no longer say, “We are sick and helpless,” for the Lord will forgive them their sins and bless them.

34 Come here and listen, O nations of the earth; let the world and everything in it hear my words. ² For the Lord is enraged against the nations; his fury is against their armies. He will utterly destroy them and deliver them to slaughter. ³ Their dead will be left unburied, and the stench of rotting bodies will fill the land; the mountains will flow with their blood. ⁴ At that time the heavens above will melt away and disappear just like a rolled-up scroll, and the stars will fall as leaves, as ripe fruit from the trees.

⁵ And when my sword has finished its work in the heavens, then watch, for it will fall upon Edom, the people I have doomed. ⁶ The sword of the Lord is sated with blood; it is gorged with flesh as though used for slaying lambs and goats for sacrifice. For the Lord will slay a great sacrifice in Edom and make a mighty slaughter there. ⁷ The strongest will perish, young boys and veterans too. The land will be soaked with blood, and the soil made rich with fat. ⁸ For it is the day of vengeance, the year of recompense for what Edom has done to Israel. ⁹ The streams of Edom will be filled with burning pitch, and the ground will be covered with fire.

¹⁰ This judgment on Edom will never end. Its smoke will rise up forever. The land will lie deserted from generation to generation; no one will live there anymore. ¹¹ There the hawks and porcupines will live, and owls and ravens. For God will observe that land and find it worthy of destruction. He will test its nobles and find them worthy of death. ¹² It will be called “The Land of Nothing,” and its princes soon will all be gone. ¹³ Thorns will overrun the palaces, nettles will grow in its forts, and it will become the haunt of jackals and a home for ostriches. ¹⁴ The wild animals of the desert will mingle there with wolves and hyenas. Their howls will fill the night. There the night-monsters will scream at each other, and the demons will come there to rest. ¹⁵ There the owl will make her nest and lay her eggs; she will hatch her young and nestle them beneath her wings, and the kites will come, each one with its mate.

¹⁶ Search the book of the Lord and see all that he will do; not one detail will he miss; not one kite will be there without a mate, for the Lord has said it, and his Spirit will make it all come true. ¹⁷ He has surveyed and subdivided the land and deeded it to those doleful creatures; they shall possess it forever, from generation to generation.

35 Even the wilderness and desert will rejoice in those days; the desert will blossom with flowers. ² Yes, there will be an abundance of flowers and singing and joy! The deserts will become as green as the Lebanon mountains, as lovely as Mount Carmel’s pastures and Sharon’s meadows; for the Lord will display his glory there, the excellency of our God.

³ With this news bring cheer to all discouraged ones. ⁴ Encourage those who are afraid. Tell them, “Be strong, fear not, for your God is coming to destroy your enemies. He is coming to save you.” ⁵ And when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind and unstop the ears of the deaf. ⁶ The lame man will leap up like a deer, and those who could not speak will shout and sing! Springs will burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. ⁷ The parched ground will become a pool, with springs of water in the thirsty land. Where desert jackals lived, there will be reeds and rushes!

⁸ And a main road will go through that once-deserted land; it will be named “The Holy Highway.” No evil-hearted men may walk upon it. God will walk there with you; even the most stupid cannot miss the way. ⁹ No lion will lurk along its course, nor will there be any other dangers; only the redeemed will travel there. ¹⁰ These, the ransomed of the Lord, will go home along that road to Zion, singing the songs of everlasting joy. For them all sorrow and all sighing will be gone forever; only joy and gladness will be there.

36 So in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came to fight against the walled cities of Judah and conquered them. ² Then he sent his personal representative with a great army from Lachish to confer with King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. He camped near the outlet of the upper pool, along the road going past the field where cloth is bleached.

³ Then Eliakim, Hilkiah’s son, who was the prime minister of Israel, and Shebna, the king’s scribe, and Joah, Asaph’s son, the royal secretary, formed a truce team and went out of the city to meet with him. ⁴ The Assyrian ambassador told them to go and say to Hezekiah, “The mighty king of Assyria says you are a fool to think that the king of Egypt will help you. ⁵ What are the Pharaoh’s promises worth? Mere words won’t substitute for strength, yet you rely on him for help and have rebelled against me! ⁶ Egypt is a dangerous ally. She is a sharpened stick that will pierce your hand if you lean on it. That is the experience of everyone who has ever looked to her for help. ⁷ But perhaps you say, ‘We are trusting in the Lord our God!’ Oh? Isn’t he the one your king insulted, tearing down his temples and altars in the hills and making everyone in Judah worship only at the altars here in Jerusalem? ^8-9 My master, the king of Assyria, wants to make a little bet with you!—that you don’t have 2,000 men left in your entire army! If you do, he will give you 2,000 horses for them to ride on! With that tiny army, how can you think of proceeding against even the smallest and worst contingent of my master’s troops? For you’ll get no help from Egypt. ¹⁰ What’s more, do you think I have come here without the Lord’s telling me to take this land? The Lord said to me, ‘Go and destroy it!’”

¹¹ Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to him, “Please talk to us in Aramaic,^[i] for we understand it quite well. Don’t speak in Hebrew, for the people on the wall will hear.”

¹² But he replied, “My master wants everyone in Jerusalem to hear this, not just you. He wants them to know that if you don’t surrender, this city will be put under siege until everyone is so hungry and thirsty that he will eat his own dung and drink his own urine.”

¹³ Then he shouted in Hebrew to the Jews listening on the wall, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria:

¹⁴ “Don’t let Hezekiah fool you—nothing he can do will save you. ¹⁵ Don’t let him talk you into trusting in the Lord by telling you the Lord won’t let you be conquered by the king of Assyria. ¹⁶ Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for here is the king of Assyria’s offer to you: Give me a present as a token of surrender; open the gates and come out, and I will let you each have your own farm and garden and water, ¹⁷ until I can arrange to take you to a country very similar to this one—a country where there are bountiful harvests of grain and grapes, a land of plenty. ¹⁸ Don’t let Hezekiah deprive you of all this by saying the Lord will deliver you from my armies. Have any other nation’s gods ever gained victory over the armies of the king of Assyria? ¹⁹ Don’t you remember what I did to Hamath and Arpad? Did their gods save them? And what about Sepharvaim and Samaria? Where are their gods now? ²⁰ Of all the gods of these lands, which one has ever delivered their people from my power? Name just one! And do you think this God of yours can deliver Jerusalem from me? Don’t be ridiculous!”

²¹ But the people were silent and answered not a word, for Hezekiah had told them to say nothing in reply. ²² Then Eliakim (son of Hilkiah), the prime minister, and Shebna, the royal scribe, and Joah (son of Asaph), the royal secretary, went back to Hezekiah with clothes ripped to shreds as a sign of their despair and told him all that had happened.

37 When King Hezekiah heard the results of the meeting, he tore his robes and wound himself in coarse cloth used for making sacks, as a sign of humility and mourning, and went over to the Temple to pray. ² Meanwhile he sent Eliakim his prime minister, and Shebna his royal scribe, and the older priests—all dressed in sackcloth—to Isaiah the prophet, son of Amoz. ³ They brought him this message from Hezekiah:

“This is a day of trouble and frustration and blasphemy; it is a serious time, as when a woman is in heavy labor trying to give birth and the child does not come. ⁴ But perhaps the Lord your God heard the blasphemy of the king of Assyria’s representative as he scoffed at the living God. Surely God won’t let him get away with this. Surely God will rebuke him for those words. Oh, Isaiah, pray for us who are left!”

⁵ So they took the king’s message to Isaiah.

⁶ Then Isaiah replied, “Tell King Hezekiah that the Lord says: Don’t be disturbed by this speech from the servant of the king of Assyria and his blasphemy. ⁷ For a report from Assyria will reach the king that he is needed at home at once, and he will return to his own land, where I will have him killed.”

^8-9 Now the Assyrian envoy left Jerusalem and went to consult his king, who had left Lachish and was besieging Libnah. But at this point the Assyrian king received word that Tirhakah, crown prince of Ethiopia, was leading an army against him from the south.^[j] Upon hearing this, he sent messengers back to Jerusalem to Hezekiah with this message:

¹⁰ “Don’t let this God you trust in fool you by promising that Jerusalem will not be captured by the king of Assyria! ¹¹ Just remember what has happened wherever the kings of Assyria have gone, for they have crushed everyone who has opposed them. Do you think you will be any different? ¹² Did their gods save the cities of Gozan, Haran, or Rezeph, or the people of Eden in Telassar? No, the Assyrian kings completely destroyed them! ¹³ And don’t forget what happened to the king of Hamath, to the king of Arpad, and to the kings of the cities of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah.”

¹⁴ As soon as King Hezekiah had read this letter, he went over to the Temple and spread it out before the Lord ¹⁵ and prayed, saying, ^16-17 “O Lord, Almighty God of Israel enthroned between the Guardian Angels, you alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You alone made heaven and earth. Listen as I plead; see me as I pray. Look at this letter from King Sennacherib, for he has mocked the living God. ¹⁸ It is true, O Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all those nations, just as the letter says, ¹⁹ and thrown their gods into the fire; for they weren’t gods at all but merely idols, carved by men from wood and stone. Of course the Assyrians could destroy them. ²⁰ O Lord our God, save us so that all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you are God, and you alone.”

²¹ Then Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent this message to King Hezekiah: “The Lord God of Israel says: This is my answer to your prayer against Sennacherib, Assyria’s king.

²² “The Lord says to him: My people—the helpless virgin daughter of Zion—laughs at you and scoffs and shakes her head at you in scorn. ²³ Who is it you scoffed against and mocked? Whom did you revile? At whom did you direct your violence and pride? It was against the Holy One of Israel! ²⁴ You have sent your messengers to mock the Lord. You boast, ‘I came with my mighty army against the nations of the west. I cut down the tallest cedars and choicest cypress trees. I conquered their highest mountains and destroyed their thickest forests.’

²⁵ “You boast of wells you’ve dug in many a conquered land, and Egypt with all its armies is no obstacle to you! ²⁶ But do you not yet know that it was I who decided all this long ago? That it was I who gave you all this power from ancient times? I have caused all this to happen as I planned—that you should crush walled cities into ruined heaps. ²⁷ That’s why their people had so little power and were such easy prey for you. They were as helpless as the grass, as tender plants you trample down beneath your feet, as grass upon the housetops, burnt yellow by the sun. ²⁸ But I know you well—your comings and goings and all you do—and the way you have raged against me. ²⁹ Because of your anger against the Lord—and I heard it all!—I have put a hook in your nose and a bit in your mouth and led you back to your own land by the same road you came.”

³⁰ Then God said to Hezekiah, “Here is the proof that I am the one who is delivering this city from the king of Assyria: This year^[k] he will abandon his siege. Although it is too late now to plant your crops, and you will have only volunteer grain this fall, still it will give you enough seed for a small harvest next year, and two years from now you will be living in luxury again. ³¹ And you who are left in Judah will take root again in your own soil and flourish and multiply. ³² For a remnant shall go out from Jerusalem to repopulate the land; the power of the Lord Almighty will cause all this to come to pass.

³³ “As for the king of Assyria, his armies shall not enter Jerusalem, nor shoot their arrows there, nor march outside its gates, nor build up an earthen bank against its walls. ³⁴ He will return to his own country by the road he came on and will not enter this city, says the Lord. ³⁵ For my own honor I will defend it and in memory of my servant David.”

³⁶ That night the Angel of the Lord went out to the camp of the Assyrians and killed 185,000 soldiers; when the living wakened the next morning, all these lay dead before them. ³⁷ Then Sennacherib, king of Assyria, returned to his own country, to Nineveh. ³⁸ And one day while he was worshiping in the temple of Nisroch his god, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with their swords; then they escaped into the land of Ararat, and Esar-haddon his son became king.

38 It was just before all this that Hezekiah became deathly sick, and Isaiah the prophet (Amoz’ son) went to visit him and gave him this message from the Lord:

“Set your affairs in order, for you are going to die; you will not recover from this illness.”

² When Hezekiah heard this, he turned his face to the wall and prayed:

³ “O Lord, don’t you remember how true I’ve been to you and how I’ve always tried to obey you in everything you said?” Then he broke down with great sobs.

⁴ So the Lord sent another message to Isaiah:

⁵ “Go and tell Hezekiah that the Lord God of your forefather David hears you praying and sees your tears and will let you live fifteen more years. ⁶ He will deliver you and this city from the king of Assyria. I will defend you, says the Lord, ⁷ and here is my guarantee: ⁸ I will send the sun backwards ten degrees as measured on Ahaz’s sundial!”

So the sun retraced ten degrees that it had gone down!

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

¹⁰ “My life is but half done and I must leave it all. I am robbed of my normal years, and now I must enter the gates of Sheol. ¹¹ Never again will I see the Lord in the land of the living. Never again will I see my friends in this world. ¹² My life is blown away like a shepherd’s tent; it is cut short as when a weaver stops his working at the loom. In one short day my life hangs by a thread.

¹³ “All night I moaned; it was like being torn apart by lions. ¹⁴ Delirious, I chattered like a swallow and mourned like a dove; my eyes grew weary of looking up for help. ‘O God,’ I cried, ‘I am in trouble—help me.’ ¹⁵ But what can I say? For he himself has sent this sickness. All my sleep has fled because of my soul’s bitterness. ¹⁶ O Lord, your discipline is good and leads to life and health. Oh, heal me and make me live!

¹⁷ “Yes, now I see it all—it was good for me to undergo this bitterness, for you have lovingly delivered me from death; you have forgiven all my sins. ¹⁸ For dead men cannot praise you.^[l] They cannot be filled with hope and joy. ¹⁹ The living, only the living, can praise you as I do today. One generation makes known your faithfulness to the next. ²⁰ Think of it! The Lord healed me! Every day of my life from now on I will sing my songs of praise in the Temple, accompanied by the orchestra.”

²¹ (For Isaiah had told Hezekiah’s servants, “Make an ointment of figs and spread it over the boil, and he will get well again.”

²² And then Hezekiah had asked, “What sign will the Lord give me to prove that he will heal me?”)

39 Soon afterwards, the king of Babylon (Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan) sent Hezekiah a present and his best wishes,^[m] for he had heard that Hezekiah had been very sick and now was well again. ² Hezekiah appreciated this and took the envoys from Babylon on a tour of the palace, showing them his treasure-house full of silver, gold, spices, and perfumes. He took them into his jewel rooms, too, and opened to them all his treasures—everything.

³ Then Isaiah the prophet came to the king and said, “What did they say? Where are they from?”

“From far away in Babylon,” Hezekiah replied.

⁴ “How much have they seen?” asked Isaiah.

And Hezekiah replied, “I showed them everything I own, all my priceless treasures.”

⁵ Then Isaiah said to him, “Listen to this message from the Lord Almighty:

⁶ “The time is coming when everything you have—all the treasures stored up by your fathers—will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left. ⁷ And some of your own sons will become slaves, yes, eunuchs, in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

⁸ “All right,” Hezekiah replied. “Whatever the Lord says is good. At least there will be peace during my lifetime!”

40 “Comfort, yes, comfort my people,” says your God. ² “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and tell her that her sad days are gone. Her sins are pardoned, and I have punished her in full for all her sins.”

³ Listen! I hear the voice of someone shouting, “Make a road for the Lord through the wilderness; make him a straight, smooth road through the desert. ⁴ Fill the valleys; level the hills; straighten out the crooked paths, and smooth off the rough spots in the road. ⁵ The glory of the Lord will be seen by all mankind together.” The Lord has spoken—it shall be.

⁶ The voice says, “Shout!”

“What shall I shout?” I asked.

“Shout that man is like the grass that dies away, and all his beauty fades like dying flowers. ⁷ The grass withers, the flower fades beneath the breath of God. And so it is with fragile man. ⁸ The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God shall stand forever.”

⁹ O crier of good news, shout to Jerusalem from the mountaintops! Shout louder—don’t be afraid—tell the cities of Judah, “Your God is coming!” ¹⁰ Yes, the Lord God is coming with mighty power; he will rule with awesome strength. See, his reward is with him, to each as he has done. ¹¹ He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will carry the lambs in his arms and gently lead the ewes with young.

¹² Who else has held the oceans in his hands and measured off the heavens with his ruler? Who else knows the weight of all the earth and weighs the mountains and the hills? ¹³ Who can advise the Spirit of the Lord or be his teacher or give him counsel? ¹⁴ Has he ever needed anyone’s advice? Did he need instruction as to what is right and best? ¹⁵ No, for all the peoples of the world are nothing in comparison with him—they are but a drop in the bucket, dust on the scales. He picks up the islands as though they had no weight at all. ¹⁶ All of Lebanon’s forests do not contain sufficient fuel to consume a sacrifice large enough to honor him, nor are all its animals enough to offer to our God. ¹⁷ All the nations are as nothing to him; in his eyes they are less than nothing—mere emptiness and froth.

¹⁸ How can we describe God? With what can we compare him? ¹⁹ With an idol? An idol made from a mold, overlaid with gold, and with silver chains around its neck? ²⁰ The man too poor to buy expensive gods like that will find a tree free from rot and hire a man to carve a face on it, and that’s his god—a god that cannot even move!

²¹ Are you so ignorant? Are you so deaf to the words of God—the words he gave before the world began? Have you never heard nor understood? ²² It is God who sits above the circle of the earth. (The people below must seem to him like grasshoppers!) He is the one who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and makes his tent from them. ²³ He dooms the great men of the world and brings them all to naught. ²⁴ They hardly get started, barely take root, when he blows on them and their work withers, and the wind carries them off like straw.

²⁵ “With whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?” asks the Holy One.

²⁶ Look up into the heavens! Who created all these stars? As a shepherd leads his sheep,^[n] calling each by its pet name, and counts them to see that none are lost or strayed, so God does with stars and planets!

²⁷ O Jacob, O Israel, how can you say that the Lord doesn’t see your troubles and isn’t being fair? ²⁸ Don’t you yet understand? Don’t you know by now that the everlasting God, the Creator of the farthest parts of the earth, never grows faint or weary? No one can fathom the depths of his understanding. ²⁹ He gives power to the tired and worn out, and strength to the weak. ³⁰ Even the youths shall be exhausted, and the young men will all give up. ³¹ But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

41 Listen in silence before me, O lands beyond the sea. Bring your strongest arguments. Come now and speak. The court is ready for your case.

² Who has stirred up this one from the east,^[o] whom victory meets at every step? Who, indeed, but the Lord? God has given him victory over many nations and permitted him to trample kings underfoot and to put entire armies to the sword. ³ He chases them away and goes on safely, though the paths he treads are new. ⁴ Who has done such mighty deeds, directing the affairs of generations of mankind as they march by? It is I, the Lord, the First and Last; I alone am he.

⁵ The lands beyond the sea watch in fear and wait for word of Cyrus’s^[p] new campaigns. Remote lands tremble and mobilize for war. ^6-7 The craftsmen encourage each other as they rush to make new idols to protect them. The carver hurries the goldsmith, and the molder helps at the anvil. “Good,” they say. “It’s coming along fine. Now we can solder on the arms.” Carefully they join the parts together and then fasten the thing in place so it won’t fall over!

⁸ But as for you, O Israel, you are mine, my chosen ones; for you are Abraham’s family, and he was my friend. ⁹ I have called you back from the ends of the earth and said that you must serve but me alone, for I have chosen you and will not throw you away. ¹⁰ Fear not, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed. I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.^[q]

¹¹ See, all your angry enemies lie confused and shattered. Anyone opposing you will die. ¹² You will look for them in vain—they will all be gone. ¹³ I am holding you by your right hand—I, the Lord your God—and I say to you, Don’t be afraid; I am here to help you. ¹⁴ Despised though you are, fear not, O Israel; for I will help you. I am the Lord, your Redeemer; I am the Holy One of Israel. ¹⁵ You shall be a new and sharp-toothed threshing instrument to tear all enemies apart, making chaff of mountains. ¹⁶ You shall toss them in the air; the wind shall blow them all away; whirlwinds shall scatter them. And the joy of the Lord shall fill you full; you shall glory in the God of Israel.

¹⁷ When the poor and needy seek water and there is none, and their tongues are parched from thirst, then I will answer when they cry to me. I, Israel’s God, will never forsake them. ¹⁸ I will open up rivers for them on high plateaus! I will give them fountains of water in the valleys! In the deserts will be pools of water, and rivers fed by springs shall flow across the dry, parched ground.