Isaiah
Chapter 37
1 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and went into God’s house.
2 He sent Eliakim, the household manager, Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests in mourning clothes to Isaiah the prophet, Amoz’s son.
3 They told him, “Hezekiah says, ‘Today is a day of trouble, criticism, and disrespect: the babies are ready to be born, but there is no strength to deliver them.’”
4 It’s possible God will hear what Rabshakeh has said, sent by the king of Assyria to insult the true God, and will correct what God has heard. So, pray for the survivors who remain.
5 King Hezekiah’s servants went to Isaiah.
6 Isaiah told them, “Tell your master, ‘God says, Do not fear the words you’ve heard, which the king of Assyria’s servants have used to insult me.’”
7 I will send a disaster against him. He will hear a rumor and go back to his land. There, he will die by the sword.
8 So Rabshakeh went back and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah because he heard that the king had left Lachish.
9 He heard that Tirhakah, the king of Ethiopia, was coming to fight you. So he sent messengers to Hezekiah with this message.
10 Tell Hezekiah, king of Judah, this: Don’t let your God, who you trust, trick you into thinking that Jerusalem won’t be handed over to the king of Assyria.
11 Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria did to all countries by completely destroying them; can you really be saved?
12 Did the gods of other nations save the cities my ancestors destroyed, like Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden in Telassar?
13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arphad, and the king of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?
14 Hezekiah got the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went to God’s house and laid it out before God.
15 Hezekiah prayed to God, saying,
16 God of heaven’s armies, the God of Israel, who sits above the angelic creatures, you are the only God of all the earth’s nations: you created the sky and the land.
17 Listen to me, God, and hear; open your eyes, God, and see; and hear everything Sennacherib has said to insult you, the living God.
18 Truly, God, the kings of Assyria have destroyed all the nations and their lands.
19 They threw their gods into the fire because they were not real gods, just things made by human hands from wood and stone, so they destroyed them.
20 So now, our God, save us from his power, so all the countries of the world will know that you are God, and only you.
21 Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah, saying, “God of Israel says, because you prayed to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria:
22 This is what God has said about him: The young woman, the city of Zion, looks down on you and laughs at you; the city of Jerusalem shakes her head at you.
23 Who have you insulted and spoken against? And who have you raised your voice and looked at with pride? Even against the Holy One of Israel.
24 Your servants insulted God, saying, “With my many chariots I climbed mountain peaks, Lebanon’s edges; I’ll chop its tall cedars, best firs; I’ll reach its far heights, Carmel’s woods.”
25 I have dug and drunk water; and with my feet I have dried up all the rivers of the attacked places.
26 Didn’t you hear a long time ago how I made it happen, and from long ago that I planned it? Now I have made it happen, so that you could turn fortified cities into piles of ruins.
27 So the people living there were weak, scared, and confused. They were like field grass, green plants, grass on roofs, and grain wilted before it grows.
28 I know where you live, how you go out and come in, and how angry you are with me.
29 Because you are angry with me and I have heard your noise, I will put a hook in your nose and a bit in your mouth, and I will make you go back the way you came.
30 This will be a sign for you: This year, you will eat what grows by itself; the next year, what comes from that; but in the third year, plant crops, harvest them, grow vineyards, and eat their fruit.
31 The survivors from the family of Judah will again put down roots and grow fruit.
32 From Jerusalem, a group will survive, and some will flee from Mount Zion; God’s intense dedication will make this happen.
33 So, God says about the king of Assyria: He will not enter this city, shoot an arrow here, come near it with shields, or build a siege ramp against it.
34 He will go back the way he came and will not enter this city, says God.
35 I will protect this city and save it for myself and for my servant David.
36 Then God’s angel went out and struck down 185,000 in the Assyrian camp. When people got up the next morning, everyone was dead.
37 So Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, left, went back, and stayed in Nineveh.
38 While he was praying in Nisroch’s temple, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with a sword and then ran away to Armenia. After that, his son Esarhaddon became the new king.