Isaiah 32-37

New King James Version

A Reign of Righteousness

32 Behold, ^(A)a king will reign in righteousness,
And princes will rule with justice.
²A man will be as a hiding place from the wind,
And ^(B)a ^[a]cover from the tempest,
As rivers of water in a dry place,
As the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
³^(C)The eyes of those who see will not be dim,
And the ears of those who hear will listen.
⁴Also the heart of the ^[b]rash will ^(D)understand knowledge,
And the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly.

⁵The foolish person will no longer be called ^[c]generous,
Nor the miser said to be bountiful;
⁶For the foolish person will speak foolishness,
And his heart will work ^(E)iniquity:
To practice ungodliness,
To utter error against the Lord,
To keep the hungry unsatisfied,
And he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
⁷Also the schemes of the schemer are evil;
He devises wicked plans
To destroy the poor with ^(F)lying words,
Even when the needy speaks justice.
⁸But a ^[d]generous man devises generous things,
And by generosity he shall stand.

Consequences of Complacency

⁹Rise up, you women ^(G)who are at ease,
Hear my voice;
You complacent daughters,
Give ear to my speech.
¹⁰In a year and some days
You will be troubled, you complacent women;
For the vintage will fail,
The gathering will not come.
¹¹Tremble, you women who are at ease;
Be troubled, you complacent ones;
Strip yourselves, make yourselves bare,
And gird sackcloth on your waists.

¹²People shall mourn upon their breasts
For the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.
¹³^(H)On the land of my people will come up thorns and briers,
Yes, on all the happy homes in ^(I)the joyous city;
¹⁴^(J)Because the palaces will be forsaken,
The bustling city will be deserted.
The forts and towers will become lairs forever,
A joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks—
¹⁵Until ^(K)the Spirit is poured upon us from on high,
And ^(L)the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,
And the fruitful field is counted as a forest.

The Peace of God’s Reign

¹⁶Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,
And righteousness remain in the fruitful field.
¹⁷^(M)The work of righteousness will be peace,
And the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.
¹⁸My people will dwell in a peaceful habitation,
In secure dwellings, and in quiet ^(N)resting places,
¹⁹^(O)Though hail comes down ^(P)on the forest,
And the city is brought low in humiliation.

²⁰Blessed are you who sow beside all waters,
Who send out freely the feet of ^(Q)the ox and the donkey.

A Prayer in Deep Distress

33 Woe to you ^(R)who plunder, though you have not been plundered;
And you who deal treacherously, though they have not dealt treacherously with you!
^(S)When you cease plundering,
You will be ^(T)plundered;
When you make an end of dealing treacherously,
They will deal treacherously with you.

²O Lord, be gracious to us;
^(U)We have waited for You.
Be ^[e]their arm every morning,
Our salvation also in the time of trouble.
³At the noise of the tumult the people ^(V)shall flee;
When You lift Yourself up, the nations shall be scattered;
⁴And Your plunder shall be gathered
Like the gathering of the caterpillar;
As the running to and fro of locusts,
He shall run upon them.

⁵^(W)The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high;
He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.
⁶Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times,
And the strength of salvation;
The fear of the Lord is His treasure.

⁷Surely their valiant ones shall cry outside,
^(X)The ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly.
⁸^(Y)The highways lie waste,
The traveling man ceases.
^(Z)He has broken the covenant,
^[f]He has despised the ^[g]cities,
He regards no man.
⁹^(AA)The earth mourns and languishes,
Lebanon is shamed and shriveled;
Sharon is like a wilderness,
And Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits.

Impending Judgment on Zion

¹⁰“Now^(AB) I will rise,” says the Lord;
“Now I will be exalted,
Now I will lift Myself up.
¹¹^(AC)You shall conceive chaff,
You shall bring forth stubble;
Your breath, as fire, shall devour you.
¹²And the people shall be like the burnings of lime;
^(AD)Like thorns cut up they shall be burned in the fire.
¹³Hear, ^(AE)you who are afar off, what I have done;
And you who are near, acknowledge My might.”

¹⁴The sinners in Zion are afraid;
Fearfulness has seized the hypocrites:
“Who among us shall dwell with the devouring ^(AF)fire?
Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?”
¹⁵He who ^(AG)walks righteously and speaks uprightly,
He who despises the gain of oppressions,
Who gestures with his hands, refusing bribes,
Who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed,
And ^(AH)shuts his eyes from seeing evil:
¹⁶He will dwell on ^[h]high;
His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks;
Bread will be given him,
His water will be sure.

The Land of the Majestic King

¹⁷Your eyes will see the King in His ^(AI)beauty;
They will see the land that is very far off.
¹⁸Your heart will meditate on terror:
^(AJ)“Where is the scribe?
Where is he who weighs?
Where is he who counts the towers?”
¹⁹^(AK)You will not see a fierce people,
^(AL)A people of obscure speech, beyond perception,
Of a ^[i]stammering tongue that you cannot understand.

²⁰^(AM)Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts;
Your eyes will see ^(AN)Jerusalem, a quiet home,
A tabernacle that will not be taken down;
^(AO)Not one of ^(AP)its stakes will ever be removed,
Nor will any of its cords be broken.
²¹But there the majestic Lord will be for us
A place of broad rivers and streams,
In which no ^[j]galley with oars will sail,
Nor majestic ships pass by
²²(For the Lord is our ^(AQ)Judge,
The Lord is our ^(AR)Lawgiver,
^(AS)The Lord is our King;
He will save us);
²³Your tackle is loosed,
They could not strengthen their mast,
They could not spread the sail.

Then the prey of great plunder is divided;
The lame take the prey.
²⁴And the inhabitant will not say, “I am sick”;
^(AT)The people who dwell in it will be forgiven their iniquity.

Judgment on the Nations

34 Come ^(AU)near, you nations, to hear;
And heed, you people!
^(AV)Let the earth hear, and all that is in it,
The world and all things that come forth from it.
²For the indignation of the Lord is against all nations,
And His fury against all their armies;
He has utterly destroyed them,
He has given them over to the ^(AW)slaughter.
³Also their slain shall be thrown out;
^(AX)Their stench shall rise from their corpses,
And the mountains shall be melted with their blood.
⁴^(AY)All the host of heaven shall be dissolved,
And the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll;
^(AZ)All their host shall fall down
As the leaf falls from the vine,
And as ^(BA)fruit falling from a fig tree.

⁵“For ^(BB)My sword shall be bathed in heaven;
Indeed it ^(BC)shall come down on Edom,
And on the people of My curse, for judgment.
⁶The ^(BD)sword of the Lord is filled with blood,
It is made ^[k]overflowing with fatness,
With the blood of lambs and goats,
With the fat of the kidneys of rams.
For ^(BE)the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
⁷The wild oxen shall come down with them,
And the young bulls with the mighty bulls;
Their land shall be soaked with blood,
And their dust ^[l]saturated with fatness.”

⁸For it is the day of the Lord’s ^(BF)vengeance,
The year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
⁹^(BG)Its streams shall be turned into pitch,
And its dust into brimstone;
Its land shall become burning pitch.
¹⁰It shall not be quenched night or day;
^(BH)Its smoke shall ascend forever.
^(BI)From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
No one shall pass through it forever and ever.
¹¹^(BJ)But the ^[m]pelican and the ^[n]porcupine shall possess it,
Also the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.
And ^(BK)He shall stretch out over it
The line of confusion and the stones of emptiness.
¹²They shall call its nobles to the kingdom,
But none shall be there, and all its princes shall be nothing.

¹³And ^(BL)thorns shall come up in its palaces,
Nettles and brambles in its fortresses;
^(BM)It shall be a habitation of jackals,
A courtyard for ostriches.
¹⁴The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the ^[o]jackals,
And the wild goat shall bleat to its companion;
Also ^[p]the night creature shall rest there,
And find for herself a place of rest.
¹⁵There the arrow snake shall make her nest and lay eggs
And hatch, and gather them under her shadow;
There also shall the hawks be gathered,
Every one with her mate.

¹⁶“Search from ^(BN)the book of the Lord, and read:
Not one of these shall fail;
Not one shall lack her mate.
For My mouth has commanded it, and His Spirit has gathered them.
¹⁷He has cast the lot for them,
And His hand has divided it among them with a measuring line.
They shall possess it forever;
From generation to generation they shall dwell in it.”

The Future Glory of Zion

35 The ^(BO)wilderness and the ^[q]wasteland shall be glad for them,
And the ^(BP)desert^[r] shall rejoice and blossom as the rose;
²^(BQ)It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice,
Even with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
The excellence of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the ^(BR)glory of the Lord,
The excellency of our God.

³^(BS)Strengthen the ^[s]weak hands,
And make firm the ^[t]feeble knees.
⁴Say to those who are fearful-hearted,
“Be strong, do not fear!
Behold, your God will come with ^(BT)vengeance,
With the recompense of God;
He will come and ^(BU)save you.”

⁵Then the ^(BV)eyes of the blind shall be opened,
And ^(BW)the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
⁶Then the ^(BX)lame shall leap like a deer,
And the ^(BY)tongue of the dumb sing.
For ^(BZ)waters shall burst forth in the wilderness,
And streams in the desert.
⁷The parched ground shall become a pool,
And the thirsty land springs of water;
In ^(CA)the habitation of jackals, where each lay,
There shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

⁸A ^(CB)highway shall be there, and a road,
And it shall be called the Highway of Holiness.
^(CC)The unclean shall not pass over it,
But it shall be for others.
Whoever walks the road, although a fool,
Shall not go astray.
⁹^(CD)No lion shall be there,
Nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it;
It shall not be found there.
But the redeemed shall walk there,
¹⁰And the ^(CE)ransomed of the Lord shall return,
And come to Zion with singing,
With everlasting joy on their heads.
They shall obtain joy and gladness,
And ^(CF)sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Sennacherib Boasts Against the Lord^(CG)

36 Now ^(CH)it came to pass in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. ²Then the king of Assyria sent the ^[u]Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And he stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field. ³And ^(CI)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, ^(CJ)Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to him.

⁴^(CK)Then the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: “What confidence is this in which you trust? ⁵I say you speak of having plans and power for war; but they are ^[v]mere words. Now in whom do you trust, that you rebel against me? ⁶Look! You are trusting in the ^(CL)staff of this broken reed, Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who ^(CM)trust in him.

⁷“But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’?” ’ ⁸Now therefore, I urge you, give 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 put riders on them! ⁹How then will you repel one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen? ¹⁰Have I now come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and destroy it.’ ”

¹¹Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and do not speak to us in ^[w]Hebrew in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”

¹²But the Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat and drink their own waste with you?”

¹³Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out with a loud voice in Hebrew, and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! ¹⁴Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you; ¹⁵nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, “The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ’ ¹⁶Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make peace with me by a present and come out to me; ^(CN)and every one of you eat from his own vine and every one from his own fig tree, and every one of you drink the waters of his own cistern; ¹⁷until 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. ¹⁸Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” Has any one of the ^(CO)gods of the nations delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? ¹⁹Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Indeed, have they delivered ^(CP)Samaria from my hand? ²⁰Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their countries from my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’ ”

²¹But they ^[x]held their peace and answered him not a word; for the king’s commandment was, “Do not answer him.” ²²Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.

Isaiah Assures Deliverance^(CQ)

37 And ^(CR)so it was, when King Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord. ²Then he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. ³And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah: ‘This day is a day of ^(CS)trouble and rebuke and ^[y]blasphemy; for the children have come to birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth. ⁴It may be that the Lord your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to ^(CT)reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’ ”

⁵So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. ⁶And Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. ⁷Surely I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.” ’ ”

Sennacherib’s Threat and Hezekiah’s Prayer^(CU)

⁸Then the Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he heard that he had departed from Lachish. ⁹And the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “He has come out to make war with you.” So when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰“Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying: ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ¹¹Look! You have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by utterly destroying them; and shall you be delivered? ¹²Have the ^(CV)gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? ¹³Where is the king of ^(CW)Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?’ ”

¹⁴And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. ¹⁵Then Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying: ¹⁶“O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You ^(CX)alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. ¹⁷^(CY)Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and ^(CZ)hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. ¹⁸Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their ^(DA)lands, ¹⁹and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were ^(DB)not gods, but the work of men’s hands—wood and stone. Therefore they destroyed them. ²⁰Now therefore, O Lord our God, ^(DC)save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may ^(DD)know that You are the Lord, You alone.”

The Word of the Lord Concerning Sennacherib^(DE)

²¹Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, ²²this is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning him:

“The virgin, the daughter of Zion,
Has despised you, laughed you to scorn;
The daughter of Jerusalem
Has shaken her head behind your back!

²³“Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice,
And lifted up your eyes on high?
Against the Holy One of Israel.
²⁴By your servants you have reproached the Lord,
And said, ‘By the multitude of my chariots
I have come up to the height of the mountains,
To the limits of Lebanon;
I will cut down its tall cedars
And its choice cypress trees;
I will enter its farthest height,
To its fruitful forest.
²⁵I have dug and drunk water,
And with the soles of my feet I have dried up
All the brooks of ^[z]defense.’

²⁶“Did you not hear ^(DF)long ago
How I made it,
From ancient times that I formed it?
Now I have brought it to pass,
That you should be
For crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins.
²⁷Therefore their inhabitants had little power;
They were dismayed and confounded;
They were as the grass of the field
And the green herb,
As the grass on the housetops
And grain blighted before it is grown.

²⁸“But I know your dwelling place,
Your going out and your coming in,
And your rage against Me.
²⁹Because your rage against Me and your tumult
Have come up to My ears,
Therefore ^(DG)I will put My hook in your nose
And My bridle in your lips,
And I will ^(DH)turn you back
By the way which you came.” ’

³⁰“This shall be a sign to you:

You shall eat this year such as grows of itself,
And the second year what springs from the same;
Also in the third year sow and reap,
Plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.
³¹And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah
Shall again take root downward,
And bear fruit upward.
³²For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant,
And those who escape from Mount Zion.
The ^(DI)zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

³³“Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria:

‘He shall not come into this city,
Nor shoot an arrow there,
Nor come before it with shield,
Nor build a siege mound against it.
³⁴By the way that he came,
By the same shall he return;
And he shall not come into this city,’
Says the Lord.
³⁵‘For I will ^(DJ)defend this city, to save it
For My own sake and for My servant ^(DK)David’s sake.’ ”

Sennacherib’s Defeat and Death^(DL)

³⁶Then the ^(DM)angel^[aa] of the Lord went out, and ^[ab]killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses—all dead. ³⁷So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh. ³⁸Now it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then ^(DN)Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.