1 Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah’s Help Now it happened that when King Hezekiah heardit, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and entered the house of Yahweh.
2 Then he sent Eliakim, who was over the household with Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.
3 And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, reproof, and rejection; for children have come to the point of breaking forth, but there is no strength to give birth.
4 Perhaps Yahweh your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to 37:4Or defy, cf. 1 Sam 17:26 reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore, lift up a prayer for the remnant that is left.’ ”
5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
6 And Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says Yahweh, “Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me.
7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a report and return to his own land. And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.” ’ ”
8 Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that 37:8Lit he the king had set out from Lachish.
9 Then he heardthemsay concerning Tirhakah king of 37:9 Or Cush, cf. Gen 10:6 Ethiopia, “He has come out to fight against you.” So he hearditand sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
10 “Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of 37:10Lit Judah, saying Judah, ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”
11 Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, devoting them to destruction. So will you be delivered?
12 Did the gods of 37:12Lit the those nations, which my fathers have brought to ruin, deliver them,evenGozan and Haran and Rezeph and the sons of Eden whowerein Telassar?
13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim,and ofHena and Ivvah?’ ”Hezekiah’s Prayer in the Temple
14 Then Hezekiah took the 37:14Lit letters letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of Yahweh and 37:14Lit Hezekiah spread spread it out before Yahweh.
15 And Hezekiah prayed to Yahweh saying,
16 “O Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthronedabovethe cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.
17 Incline Your ear, O Yahweh, and hear; open Your eyes, O Yahweh, and see; and listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who sentthemto 37:17Or defy reproach the living God.
18 Truly, O Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste to all the countries and their lands
19 and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them.
20 But now, O Yahweh our God, save us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that 37:20DSS and 2 Kin19:19You alone, O Yahweh, are God You are Yahweh, You alone.”Yahweh’s Answer Through Isaiah
21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sentwordto Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria,
22 this is the word that Yahweh has spoken against him:“She has despised you and mocked you,The virgin daughter of Zion;She has shakenherhead behind you,The daughter of Jerusalem!
23 “Whom have you 37:23Or defied reproached and blasphemed?And against whom have you heightenedyourvoiceAnd 37:23Lit on high haughtily lifted up your eyes?Against the Holy One of Israel!
24 “Through your servants you have 37:24Or defied reproached the Lord,And you have said, ‘With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains,To the remotest parts of Lebanon;And I cut down its tall cedarsandits choice cypresses.And I will go to its 37:24Lit farthest height highest peak, its thickest forest.
25 ‘I dugwellsand drank waters,And with the sole of my feet I dried upAll the rivers of 37:25Or the besieged place Egypt.’
26 “Have you not heard?Long ago I did it;From days of old I formed it.Now I have brought it to pass,That you should devastate fortified cities into ruinous heaps.
27 “So their inhabitants were short of power;They were dismayed and put to shame;They wereasthe plant of the field andasthe green herb,Asgrass on the rooftops 37:27As in DSS and 2 Kin19:26;M.T. as a plowed field is scorched before it rises.
28 “But I know your sitting downAnd your going out and your coming inAnd your raging against Me.
29 “Because of your raging against MeAnd because your 37:29Lit complacency presumptuousness has come up to My ears,Therefore I will put My hook in your noseAnd My bridle in your lips,And I will turn you back by the way which you came.
30 “Then this shall be the sign for you: 37:30Lit eating you will eat this year what grows of its own accord, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.
31 And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward.
32 For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant and out of Mount Zion 37:32Lit those who escape survivors. The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will do this.” ’
33 “Therefore, thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield or throw up a siege ramp against it.
34 By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he will not come to this city,’ declares Yahweh.
35 ‘Indeed I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’ ”The Defeat and Death of Sennacherib
36 Then the angel of Yahweh went out and struck185,000in the camp of the Assyrians. And 37:36Lit they the men arose early in the morning, and behold, all of them were dead bodies.
37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria set out and 37:37Lit went and returned returnedhomeand lived at Nineveh.
38 Now it happened that as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.