Read full chapter

A Warning to the Northern Kingdom

28 The kingdom of Israel is doomed! Its glory is fading like the crowns of flowers on the heads of its drunken leaders. Their proud heads are well perfumed, but there they lie, dead drunk. ² The Lord has someone strong and powerful ready to attack them, someone who will come like a hailstorm, like a torrent of rain, like a rushing, overpowering flood, and will overwhelm the land. ³ The pride of those drunken leaders will be trampled underfoot. ⁴ The fading glory of those proud leaders will disappear like the first figs of the season, picked and eaten as soon as they are ripe.

⁵ A day is coming when the Lord Almighty will be like a glorious crown of flowers for his people who survive. ⁶ He will give a sense of justice to those who serve as judges, and courage to those who defend the city gates from attack.

Isaiah and the Drunken Prophets of Judah

⁷ Even the prophets and the priests are so drunk that they stagger. They have drunk so much wine and liquor that they stumble in confusion. The prophets are too drunk to understand the visions that God sends, and the priests are too drunk to decide the cases that are brought to them. ⁸ The tables where they sit are all covered with vomit, and not a clean spot is left.

⁹ They complain about me. They say, “Who does that man think he's teaching? Who needs his message? It's only good for babies that have just stopped nursing! ¹⁰ He is trying to teach us letter by letter, line by line, lesson by lesson.”

^11 (A)If you won't listen to me, then God will use foreigners speaking some strange-sounding language to teach you a lesson. ¹² He offered rest and comfort to all of you, but you refused to listen to him. ¹³ That is why the Lord is going to teach you letter by letter, line by line, lesson by lesson. Then you will stumble with every step you take. You will be wounded, trapped, and taken prisoner.

A Cornerstone for Zion

¹⁴ Now you arrogant leaders who rule here in Jerusalem over this people, listen to what the Lord is saying. ^15 (B)You boast that you have made a treaty with death and reached an agreement with the world of the dead. You are certain that disaster will spare you when it comes, because you depend on lies and deceit to keep you safe. ^16 (C)This, now, is what the Sovereign Lord says: “I am placing in Zion a foundation that is firm and strong. In it I am putting a solid cornerstone on which are written the words, ‘Faith that is firm is also patient.’ ¹⁷ Justice will be the measuring line for the foundation, and honesty will be its plumb line.”

Hailstorms will sweep away all the lies you depend on, and floods will destroy your security. ¹⁸ The treaty you have made with death will be abolished, and your agreement with the world of the dead will be canceled. When disaster sweeps down, you will be overcome. ¹⁹ It will strike you again and again, morning after morning. You will have to bear it day and night. Each new message from God will bring new terror! ²⁰ You will be like the person in the proverb, who tries to sleep in a bed too short to stretch out on, with a blanket too narrow to wrap himself in. ^21 (D)The Lord will fight as he did at Mount Perazim and in the valley of Gibeon, in order to do what he intends to do—strange as his actions may seem. He will complete his work, his mysterious work.

²² Don't laugh at the warning I am giving you! If you do, it will be even harder for you to escape. I have heard the Lord Almighty's decision to destroy the whole country.

God's Wisdom

²³ Listen to what I am saying; pay attention to what I am telling you. ²⁴ Farmers don't constantly plow their fields and keep getting them ready for planting. ²⁵ Once they have prepared the soil, they plant the seeds of herbs such as dill and cumin. They plant rows of wheat and barley,^[a] and at the edges of their fields they plant other grain. ²⁶ They know how to do their work, because God has taught them. ²⁷ They never use a heavy club to beat out dill seeds or cumin seeds; instead they use light sticks of the proper size. ²⁸ They do not ruin the wheat by threshing it endlessly, and they know how to thresh it by driving a cart over it without bruising the grains. ²⁹ All this wisdom comes from the Lord Almighty. The plans God makes are wise, and they always succeed.

The Fate of Jerusalem

29 God's altar, Jerusalem itself, is doomed! The city where David camped is doomed! Let another year or two come and go, with its feasts and festivals, ² and then God will bring disaster on the city that is called “God's altar.” There will be weeping and wailing, and the whole city will be like an altar covered with blood. ³ God will attack the city, surround it, and besiege it. ⁴ Jerusalem will be like a ghost struggling to speak from under the ground, a muffled voice coming from the dust.

⁵ Jerusalem, all the foreigners who attack you will be blown away like dust, and their terrifying armies will fly away like straw. Suddenly and unexpectedly ⁶ the Lord Almighty will rescue you with violent thunderstorms and earthquakes. He will send windstorms and raging fire; ⁷ then all the armies of the nations attacking the city of God's altar, all their weapons and equipment—everything—will vanish like a dream, like something imagined in the night. ⁸ All the nations that assemble to attack Jerusalem will be like a starving person who dreams he is eating and wakes up hungry, or like someone dying of thirst who dreams he is drinking and wakes with a dry throat.

Disregarded Warnings

⁹ Go ahead and be stupid! Go ahead and be blind! Get drunk without any wine! Stagger without drinking a drop! ^10 (E)The Lord has made you drowsy, ready to fall into a deep sleep. The prophets should be the eyes of the people, but God has blindfolded them. ¹¹ The meaning of every prophetic vision will be hidden from you; it will be like a sealed scroll. If you take it to someone who knows how to read and ask him to read it to you, he will say he can't because it is sealed. ¹² If you give it to someone who can't read and ask him to read it to you, he will answer that he doesn't know how.

^13 (F)The Lord said, “These people claim to worship me, but their words are meaningless, and their hearts are somewhere else. Their religion is nothing but human rules and traditions, which they have simply memorized. ^14 (G)So I will startle them with one unexpected blow after another. Those who are wise will turn out to be fools, and all their cleverness will be useless.”

Hope for the Future

¹⁵ Those who try to hide their plans from the Lord are doomed! They carry out their schemes in secret and think no one will see them or know what they are doing. ^16 (H)They turn everything upside down. Which is more important, the potter or the clay? Can something you have made say, “You didn't make me”? Or can it say, “You don't know what you are doing”?

¹⁷ As the saying goes, before long the dense forest will become farmland, and the farmland will go back to forest.

¹⁸ When that day comes, the deaf will be able to hear a book being read aloud, and the blind, who have been living in darkness, will open their eyes and see. ¹⁹ Poor and humble people will once again find the happiness which the Lord, the holy God of Israel, gives. ²⁰ It will be the end of those who oppress others and show contempt for God. Every sinner will be destroyed. ²¹ God will destroy those who slander others, those who prevent the punishment of criminals, and those who tell lies to keep honest people from getting justice.

²² So now the Lord, the God of Israel, who rescued Abraham from trouble, says, “My people, you will not be disgraced any longer, and your faces will no longer be pale with shame. ²³ When you see the children that I will give you, then you will acknowledge that I am the holy God of Israel. You will honor me and stand in awe of me. ²⁴ Foolish people will learn to understand, and those who are always grumbling will be glad to be taught.”

A Useless Treaty with Egypt

30 The Lord has spoken: “Those who rule Judah are doomed because they rebel against me. They follow plans that I did not make, and sign treaties against my will, piling one sin on another. ² They go to Egypt for help without asking for my advice. They want Egypt to protect them, so they put their trust in Egypt's king. ³ But the king will be powerless to help them, and Egypt's protection will end in disaster. ⁴ Although their ambassadors have already arrived at the Egyptian cities of Zoan and Hanes, ⁵ the people of Judah will regret that they ever trusted that unreliable nation, a nation that fails them when they expect help.”

⁶ This is God's message about the animals of the southern desert: “The ambassadors travel through dangerous country, where lions live and where there are poisonous snakes and flying dragons. They load their donkeys and camels with expensive gifts for a nation that cannot give them any help. ⁷ The help that Egypt gives is useless. So I have nicknamed Egypt, ‘The Harmless Dragon.’”

The Disobedient People

⁸ God told me to write down in a book what the people are like, so that there would be a permanent record of how evil they are. ⁹ They are always rebelling against God, always lying, always refusing to listen to the Lord's teachings. ¹⁰ They tell the prophets to keep quiet. They say, “Don't talk to us about what's right. Tell us what we want to hear. Let us keep our illusions. ¹¹ Get out of our way and stop blocking our path. We don't want to hear about your holy God of Israel.”

¹² But this is what the holy God of Israel says: “You ignore what I tell you and rely on violence and deceit. ¹³ You are guilty. You are like a high wall with a crack running down it; suddenly you will collapse. ¹⁴ You will be shattered like a clay pot, so badly broken that there is no piece big enough to pick up hot coals with or to dip water from a cistern.”

¹⁵ The Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says to the people, “Come back and quietly trust in me. Then you will be strong and secure.” But you refuse to do it. ¹⁶ Instead, you plan to escape from your enemies by riding fast horses. And you are right—escape is what you will have to do! You think your horses are fast enough, but those who pursue you will be faster! ¹⁷ A thousand of you will run away when you see one enemy soldier, and five soldiers will be enough to make you all run away. Nothing will be left of your army except a lonely flagpole on the top of a hill. ¹⁸ And yet the Lord is waiting to be merciful to you. He is ready to take pity on you because he always does what is right. Happy are those who put their trust in the Lord.

God Will Bless His People

¹⁹ You people who live in Jerusalem will not weep any more. The Lord is compassionate, and when you cry to him for help, he will answer you. ²⁰ The Lord will make you go through hard times, but he himself will be there to teach you, and you will not have to search for him any more. ²¹ If you wander off the road to the right or the left, you will hear his voice behind you saying, “Here is the road. Follow it.” ²² You will take your idols plated with silver and your idols covered with gold, and will throw them away like filth, shouting, “Out of my sight!” ²³ Whenever you plant your crops, the Lord will send rain to make them grow and will give you a rich harvest, and your livestock will have plenty of pasture. ²⁴ The oxen and donkeys that plow your fields will eat the finest and best fodder. ²⁵ On the day when the forts of your enemies are captured and their people are killed, streams of water will flow from every mountain and every hill. ²⁶ The moon will be as bright as the sun, and the sun will be seven times brighter than usual, like the light of seven days in one. This will all happen when the Lord bandages and heals the wounds he has given his people.

God Will Punish Assyria

²⁷ The Lord's power and glory can be seen in the distance. Fire and smoke show his anger. He speaks, and his words burn like fire. ²⁸ He sends the wind in front of him like a flood that carries everything away. It sweeps nations to destruction and puts an end to their evil plans. ²⁹ But you, God's people, will be happy and sing as you do on the night of a sacred festival. You will be as happy as those who walk to the music of flutes on their way to the Temple of the Lord, the defender of Israel.

³⁰ The Lord will let everyone hear his majestic voice and feel the force of his anger. There will be flames, cloudbursts, hailstones, and torrents of rain. ³¹ The Assyrians will be terrified when they hear the Lord's voice and feel the force of his punishment. ³² As the Lord strikes them again and again, his people will keep time with the music of drums and harps. God himself will fight against the Assyrians. ³³ Long ago a place was prepared where a huge fire will burn the emperor of Assyria. It is deep and wide, and piled high with wood. The Lord will breathe out a stream of flame to set it on fire.

God Will Protect Jerusalem

31 Those who go to Egypt for help are doomed! They are relying on Egypt's vast military strength—horses, chariots, and soldiers. But they do not rely on the Lord, the holy God of Israel, or ask him for help. ² He knows what he is doing! He sends disaster. He carries out his threats to punish evil people and those who protect them. ³ The Egyptians are not gods—they are only human. Their horses are not supernatural. When the Lord acts, the strong nation will crumble, and the weak nation it helped will fall. Both of them will be destroyed.

⁴ The Lord said to me, “No matter how shepherds yell and shout, they can't scare away a lion from an animal that it has killed; in the same way, there is nothing that can keep me, the Lord Almighty, from protecting Mount Zion. ⁵ Just as a bird hovers over its nest to protect its young, so I, the Lord Almighty, will protect Jerusalem and defend it.”

⁶ God said, “People of Israel, you have sinned against me and opposed me. But now, come back to me! ⁷ A time is coming when all of you will throw away the sinful idols you made out of silver and gold. ⁸ Assyria will be destroyed in war, but not by human power. The Assyrians will run from battle, and their young men will be made slaves. ⁹ Their emperor will run away in terror, and the officers will be so frightened that they will abandon their battle flags.” The Lord has spoken—the Lord who is worshiped in Jerusalem and whose fire burns there for sacrifices.

A King with Integrity

32 Some day there will be a king who rules with integrity, and national leaders who govern with justice. ² Each of them will be like a shelter from the wind and a place to hide from storms. They will be like streams flowing in a desert, like the shadow of a giant rock in a barren land. ³ Their eyes and ears will be open to the needs of the people. ⁴ They will not be impatient any longer, but they will act with understanding and will say what they mean. ⁵ No one will think that a fool is honorable or say that a scoundrel is honest. ⁶ A fool speaks foolishly and thinks up evil things to do. What he does and what he says are an insult to the Lord, and he never feeds the hungry or gives thirsty people anything to drink. ⁷ A stupid person is evil and does evil things; he plots to ruin the poor with lies and to keep them from getting their rights. ⁸ But an honorable person acts honestly and stands firm for what is right.

Judgment and Restoration

⁹ You women who live an easy life, free from worries, listen to what I am saying. ¹⁰ You may be satisfied now, but this time next year you will be in despair because there will be no grapes for you to gather. ¹¹ You have been living an easy life, free from worries; but now, tremble with fear! Strip off your clothes and tie rags around your waist. ¹² Beat your breasts in grief because the fertile fields and the vineyards have been destroyed, ¹³ and thorn bushes and briers are growing on my people's land. Weep for all the houses where people were happy and for the city that was full of life. ¹⁴ Even the palace will be abandoned and the capital city totally deserted. Homes and the forts that guarded them will be in ruins forever. Wild donkeys will roam there, and sheep will find pasture there.

¹⁵ But once more God will send us his spirit. The wasteland will become fertile, and fields will produce rich crops. ¹⁶ Everywhere in the land righteousness and justice will be done. ¹⁷ Because everyone will do what is right, there will be peace and security forever. ¹⁸ God's people will be free from worries, and their homes peaceful and safe. ¹⁹ (But hail will fall on the forests, and the city will be torn down.) ²⁰ How happy everyone will be with plenty of water for the crops and safe pasture everywhere for the donkeys and cattle.

A Prayer for Help

33 Our enemies are doomed! They have robbed and betrayed, although no one has robbed them or betrayed them. But their time to rob and betray will end, and they themselves will become victims of robbery and treachery.

² Lord, have mercy on us. We have put our hope in you. Protect us day by day and save us in times of trouble. ³ When you fight for us, nations run away from the noise of battle. ⁴ Their belongings are pounced upon and taken as loot.

⁵ How great the Lord is! He rules over everything. He will fill Jerusalem with justice and integrity ⁶ and give stability to the nation. He always protects his people and gives them wisdom and knowledge. Their greatest treasure is their reverence for the Lord.

⁷ The brave are calling for help. The ambassadors who tried to bring about peace are crying bitterly. ⁸ The highways are so dangerous that no one travels on them. Treaties are broken and agreements are violated. No one is respected any more. ⁹ The land lies idle and deserted. The forests of Lebanon have withered, the fertile valley of Sharon is like a desert, and in Bashan and on Mount Carmel the leaves are falling from the trees.

The Lord Warns His Enemies

¹⁰ The Lord says to the nations, “Now I will act. I will show how powerful I am. ¹¹ You make worthless plans and everything you do is useless. My spirit is like a fire that will destroy you.^{[b] 12} You will crumble like rocks burned to make lime, like thorns burned to ashes. ¹³ Let everyone near and far hear what I have done and acknowledge my power.”

¹⁴ The sinful people of Zion are trembling with fright. They say, “God's judgment is like a fire that burns forever. Can any of us survive a fire like that?” ¹⁵ You can survive if you say and do what is right. Don't use your power to cheat the poor and don't accept bribes. Don't join with those who plan to commit murder or to do other evil things. ¹⁶ Then you will be safe; you will be as secure as if in a strong fortress. You will have food to eat and water to drink.

The Glorious Future

¹⁷ Once again you will see a king ruling in splendor over a land that stretches in all directions. ¹⁸ Your old fears of foreign tax collectors and spies will be only a memory. ¹⁹ You will no longer see any arrogant foreigners who speak a language that you can't understand. ²⁰ Look at Zion, the city where we celebrate our religious festivals. Look at Jerusalem! What a safe place it will be to live in! It will be like a tent that is never moved, whose pegs are never pulled up and whose ropes never break. ²¹ The Lord will show us his glory. We will live beside broad rivers and streams, but hostile ships will not sail on them.^{[c] 22-23} All the rigging on those ships is useless; the sails cannot be spread! We will seize all the wealth of enemy armies, and there will be so much that even the lame can get a share. The Lord himself will be our king; he will rule over us and protect us. ²⁴ No one who lives in our land will ever again complain of being sick, and all sins will be forgiven.

God Will Punish His Enemies

34 Come, people of all nations! Gather around and listen. Let the whole earth and everyone living on it come here and listen. ² The Lord is angry with all the nations and all their armies. He has condemned them to destruction. ³ Their corpses will not be buried, but will lie there rotting and stinking; and the mountains will be red with blood. ^4 (I)The sun, moon, and stars will crumble to dust. The sky will disappear like a scroll being rolled up, and the stars will fall like leaves dropping from a vine or a fig tree.

^5 (J)The Lord has prepared his sword in heaven, and now it will strike Edom, those people whom he has condemned to destruction. ⁶ His sword will be covered with their blood and fat, like the blood and fat of lambs and goats that are sacrificed. The Lord will offer this sacrifice in the city of Bozrah; he will make this a great slaughter in the land of Edom. ⁷ The people will fall like wild oxen and young bulls, and the earth will be red with blood and covered with fat. ⁸ This is the time when the Lord will rescue Zion and take vengeance on her enemies.

⁹ The rivers of Edom will turn into tar, and the soil will turn into sulfur. The whole country will burn like tar. ^10 (K)It will burn day and night, and smoke will rise from it forever. The land will lie waste age after age, and no one will ever travel through it again. ¹¹ Owls and ravens will take over the land. The Lord will make it a barren waste again, as it was before the creation. ¹² There will be no king to rule the country, and the leaders will all be gone.^{[d] 13} Thorns and thistles will grow up in all the palaces and walled towns, and jackals and owls will live in them. ¹⁴ Wild animals will roam there, and demons will call to each other. The night monster^[e] will come there looking for a place to rest. ¹⁵ Owls will build their nests, lay eggs, hatch their young, and care for them there. Vultures will gather there, one after another.

¹⁶ Search in the Lord's book of living creatures and read what it says. Not one of these creatures will be missing, and not one will be without its mate. The Lord has commanded it to be so; he himself will bring them together. ¹⁷ It is the Lord who will divide the land among them and give each of them a share. They will live in the land age after age, and it will belong to them forever.

The Road of Holiness

The Assyrians Threaten Jerusalem^(N)

36 In the fourteenth year that Hezekiah was king of Judah, Sennacherib, the emperor of Assyria, attacked the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. ² Then he ordered his chief official to go from Lachish to Jerusalem with a large military force to demand that King Hezekiah surrender. The official occupied the road where the cloth makers work, by the ditch that brings water from the upper pool. ³ Three Judeans came out to meet him: the official in charge of the palace, Eliakim son of Hilkiah; the court secretary, Shebna; and the official in charge of the records, Joah son of Asaph. ⁴ The Assyrian official told them that the emperor wanted to know what made King Hezekiah so confident. ⁵ He demanded, “Do you think that words can take the place of military skill and might? Who do you think will help you rebel against Assyria? ^6 (O)You are expecting Egypt to help you, but that would be like using a reed as a walking stick—it would break and would jab your hand. That is what the king of Egypt is like when anyone relies on him.”

⁷ The Assyrian official went on, “Or will you tell me that you are relying on the Lord your God? It was the Lord's shrines and altars that Hezekiah destroyed when he told the people of Judah and Jerusalem to worship at one altar only. ⁸ I will make a bargain with you in the name of the emperor. I will give you two thousand horses if you can find that many riders. ⁹ You are no match for even the lowest ranking Assyrian official, and yet you expect the Egyptians to send you chariots and horsemen. ¹⁰ Do you think I have attacked your country and destroyed it without the Lord's help? The Lord himself told me to attack it and destroy it.”

¹¹ Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah told the official, “Speak Aramaic to us. We understand it. Don't speak Hebrew; all the people on the wall are listening.”

¹² He replied, “Do you think you and the king are the only ones the emperor sent me to say all these things to? No, I am also talking to the people who are sitting on the wall, who will have to eat their excrement and drink their urine, just as you will.”

¹³ Then the official stood up and shouted in Hebrew, “Listen to what the emperor of Assyria is telling you. ¹⁴ He warns you not to let Hezekiah deceive you. Hezekiah can't save you. ¹⁵ And don't let him persuade you to rely on the Lord. Don't think that the Lord will save you and that he will stop our Assyrian army from capturing your city. ¹⁶ Don't listen to Hezekiah! The emperor of Assyria commands you to come out of the city and surrender. You will all be allowed to eat grapes from your own vines and figs from your own trees, and to drink water from your own wells— ¹⁷ until the emperor resettles you in a country much like your own, where there are vineyards to give wine and there is grain for making bread. ¹⁸ Don't let Hezekiah fool you into thinking that the Lord will rescue you. Did the gods of any other nations save their countries from the emperor of Assyria? ¹⁹ Where are they now, the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Did anyone save Samaria? ²⁰ When did any of the gods of all these countries ever save their country from our emperor? Then what makes you think the Lord can save Jerusalem?”

²¹ The people kept quiet, just as King Hezekiah had told them to; they did not say a word. ²² Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah tore their clothes in grief and went and reported to the king what the Assyrian official had said.

The King Asks Isaiah's Advice^(P)

37 As soon as King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes in grief, put on sackcloth, and went to the Temple of the Lord. ² He sent Eliakim, the official in charge of the palace, Shebna, the court secretary, and the senior priests to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. They also were wearing sackcloth. ³ This is the message which he told them to give to Isaiah: “Today is a day of suffering; we are being punished and are in disgrace. We are like a woman who is ready to give birth, but is too weak to do it. ⁴ The Assyrian emperor has sent his chief official to insult the living God. May the Lord your God hear these insults and punish those who spoke them. So pray to God for those of our people who survive.”

⁵ When Isaiah received King Hezekiah's message, ⁶ he sent back this answer: “The Lord tells you not to let the Assyrians frighten you by their claims that he cannot save you. ⁷ The Lord will cause the emperor to hear a rumor that will make him go back to his own country, and the Lord will have him killed there.”

The Assyrians Send Another Threat^(Q)

⁸ The Assyrian official learned that the emperor had left Lachish and was fighting against the nearby city of Libnah; so he went there to consult him. ⁹ Word reached the Assyrians that the Egyptian army, led by King Tirhakah of Ethiopia,^[g] was coming to attack them. When the emperor heard this, he sent a letter to King Hezekiah ¹⁰ of Judah to tell him: “The god you are trusting in has told you that you will not fall into my hands, but don't let that deceive you. ¹¹ You have heard what an Assyrian emperor does to any country he decides to destroy. Do you think that you can escape? ¹² My ancestors destroyed the cities of Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph, and killed the people of Betheden who lived in Telassar, and none of their gods could save them. ¹³ Where are the kings of the cities of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?”

¹⁴ King Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went to the Temple, placed the letter there in the presence of the Lord, ¹⁵ and prayed, ^16 (R)“Almighty Lord, God of Israel, seated above the winged creatures, you alone are God, ruling all the kingdoms of the world. You created the earth and the sky. ¹⁷ Now, Lord, hear us and look at what is happening to us. Listen to all the things that Sennacherib is saying to insult you, the living God. ¹⁸ We all know, Lord, that the emperors of Assyria have destroyed many nations, made their lands desolate, ¹⁹ and burned up their gods—which were no gods at all, only images of wood and stone made by human hands. ²⁰ Now, Lord our God, rescue us from the Assyrians, so that all the nations of the world will know that you alone are God.”

Isaiah's Message to the King^(S)

²¹ Then Isaiah sent a message telling King Hezekiah that in answer to the king's prayer ²² the Lord had said, “The city of Jerusalem laughs at you, Sennacherib, and makes fun of you. ²³ Whom do you think you have been insulting and ridiculing? You have been disrespectful to me, the holy God of Israel. ²⁴ You sent your servants to boast to me that with all your chariots you had conquered the highest mountains of Lebanon. You boasted that there you cut down the tallest cedars and the finest cypress trees, and that you reached the deepest parts of the forests. ²⁵ You boasted that you dug wells and drank water in foreign lands, and that the feet of your soldiers tramped the Nile River dry.

²⁶ “Have you never heard that I planned all this long ago? And now I have carried it out. I gave you the power to turn fortified cities into piles of rubble. ²⁷ The people who lived there were powerless; they were frightened and stunned. They were like grass in a field or weeds growing on a roof when the hot east wind blasts them.^[h]

²⁸ “But I know everything about you, what you do and where you go. I know how you rage against me. ²⁹ I have received the report of that rage and that pride of yours, and now I will put a hook through your nose and a bit in your mouth and will take you back by the same road you came.”

³⁰ Then Isaiah said to King Hezekiah, “Here is a sign of what will happen. This year and next you will have only wild grain to eat, but the following year you will be able to plant grain and harvest it, and plant vines and eat grapes. ³¹ Those in Judah who survive will flourish like plants that send roots deep into the ground and produce fruit. ³² There will be people in Jerusalem and on Mount Zion who will survive, because the Lord Almighty is determined to make this happen.

³³ “And this is what the Lord has said about the Assyrian emperor: ‘He will not enter this city or shoot a single arrow against it. No soldiers with shields will come near the city, and no siege mounds will be built around it. ³⁴ He will go back by the same road he came, without entering this city. I, the Lord, have spoken. ³⁵ I will defend this city and protect it, for the sake of my own honor and because of the promise I made to my servant David.’”

³⁶ An angel of the Lord went to the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 soldiers. At dawn the next day there they lay, all dead! ³⁷ Then the Assyrian emperor Sennacherib withdrew and returned to Nineveh. ³⁸ One day when he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, two of his sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, killed him with their swords and then escaped to the land of Ararat. Another of his sons, Esarhaddon, succeeded him as emperor.

King Hezekiah's Illness and Recovery^(T)

38 About this time King Hezekiah became sick and almost died. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to see him and said to him, “The Lord tells you that you are to put everything in order because you will not recover. Get ready to die.”

² Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed: ³ “Remember, Lord, that I have served you faithfully and loyally, and that I have always tried to do what you wanted me to.” And he began to cry bitterly.

⁴ Then the Lord commanded Isaiah ⁵ to go back to Hezekiah and say to him, “I, the Lord, the God of your ancestor David, have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will let you live fifteen years longer. ⁶ I will rescue you and this city of Jerusalem from the emperor of Assyria, and I will continue to protect the city.”

²¹ Isaiah told the king to put a paste made of figs on his boil, and he would get well. ²² Then King Hezekiah asked, “What is the sign to prove that I will be able to go to the Temple?”^[i]

⁷ Isaiah replied, “The Lord will give you a sign to prove that he will keep his promise. ⁸ On the stairway built by King Ahaz, the Lord will make the shadow go back ten steps.” And the shadow moved back ten steps.^[j]

⁹ After Hezekiah recovered from his illness, he wrote this song of praise:

Messengers from Babylonia^(V)

39 About that same time the king of Babylonia, Merodach Baladan, son of Baladan, heard that King Hezekiah had been sick, so he sent him a letter and a present. ² Hezekiah welcomed the messengers and showed them his wealth—his silver and gold, his spices and perfumes, and all his military equipment. There was nothing in his storerooms or anywhere in his kingdom that he did not show them. ³ Then the prophet Isaiah went to King Hezekiah and asked, “Where did these messengers come from and what did they say to you?”

Hezekiah answered, “They came from a very distant country, from Babylonia.”

⁴ “What did they see in the palace?”

“They saw everything. There is nothing in the storerooms that I didn't show them.”

⁵ Isaiah then told the king, “The Lord Almighty says that ⁶ a time is coming when everything in your palace, everything that your ancestors have stored up to this day, will be carried off to Babylonia. Nothing will be left. ^7 (W)Some of your own direct descendants will be taken away and made eunuchs to serve in the palace of the king of Babylonia.”

⁸ King Hezekiah understood this to mean that there would be peace and security during his lifetime, so he replied, “The message you have given me from the Lord is good.”

Words of Hope

Israel's Incomparable God

God's Assurance to Israel

41 God says,

¹⁴ The Lord says,

The Lord's Challenge to False Gods

²¹ The Lord, the king of Israel, has this to say:

The Lord's Servant

42 ^(AH)The Lord says,

A Song of Praise

God Promises to Help His People

¹⁴ God says,

Israel's Failure to Learn

¹⁸ The Lord says,

God Promises to Rescue His People

43 Israel, the Lord who created you says,

Israel Is the Lord's Witness

⁸ God says,

Escape from Babylon

¹⁴ Israel's holy God, the Lord who saves you, says,

¹⁸ But the Lord says,

Israel's Sin

²² The Lord says,

The Lord Is the Only God

44 The Lord says,

Idolatry Is Ridiculed

⁹ All those who make idols are worthless, and the gods they prize so highly are useless. Those who worship these gods are blind and ignorant—and they will be disgraced. ¹⁰ It does no good to make a metal image to worship as a god! ¹¹ Everyone who worships it will be humiliated. The people who make idols are human beings and nothing more. Let them come and stand trial—they will be terrified and will suffer disgrace.

¹² The metalworker takes a piece of metal and works with it over a fire. His strong arm swings a hammer to pound the metal into shape. As he works, he gets hungry, thirsty, and tired.

¹³ The carpenter measures the wood. He outlines a figure with chalk, carves it out with his tools, and makes it in the form of a man, a handsome human figure, to be placed in his house. ¹⁴ He might cut down cedars to use, or choose oak or cypress wood from the forest. Or he might plant a laurel tree and wait for the rain to make it grow. ^15 (AL)A person uses part of a tree for fuel and part of it for making an idol. With one part he builds a fire to warm himself and bake bread; with the other part he makes a god and worships it. ¹⁶ With some of the wood he makes a fire; he roasts meat, eats it, and is satisfied. He warms himself and says, “How nice and warm! What a beautiful fire!” ¹⁷ The rest of the wood he makes into an idol, and then he bows down and worships it. He prays to it and says, “You are my god—save me!”

¹⁸ Such people are too stupid to know what they are doing. They close their eyes and their minds to the truth. ¹⁹ The maker of idols hasn't the wit or the sense to say, “Some of the wood I burned up. I baked some bread on the coals, and I roasted meat and ate it. And the rest of the wood I made into an idol. Here I am bowing down to a block of wood!”

²⁰ It makes as much sense^[ac] as eating ashes. His foolish ideas have so misled him that he is beyond help. He won't admit to himself that the idol he holds in his hand is not a god at all.

The Lord, the Creator and Savior

²¹ The Lord says,

The Lord Appoints Cyrus