²⁸ I will gather you to your ancestors and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring on this place and its inhabitants.’ ” They took the message back to the king.

⁸ Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my days.”^(A)

Punishment Is Inevitable

15 Then the Lord said to me: Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go!^(A)

Israel’s Futile Idolatry

²⁴ So his servants took him out of the chariot and carried him in his second chariot^[a] and brought him to Jerusalem. There he died and was buried in the tombs of his ancestors. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.^(A)

¹⁴ even if Noah, Daniel,^[a] and Job, these three, were in it, they would save only their own lives by their righteousness, says the Lord God.^{(A) 15} If I send wild animals through the land to ravage it so that it is made desolate and no one may pass through because of the animals,^{(B) 16} even if these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they would save neither sons nor daughters; they alone would be saved, but the land would be desolate. ¹⁷ Or if I bring a sword upon that land and say, “Let a sword pass through the land,” and I cut off humans and animals from it,^{(C) 18} though these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they would save neither sons nor daughters, but they alone would be saved. ¹⁹ Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out my wrath upon it with blood, to cut off humans and animals from it,^{(D) 20} even if Noah, Daniel,^[b] and Job were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they would save neither son nor daughter; they would save only their own lives by their righteousness.

²¹ Therefore thus says the Lord God: How much more when I send upon Jerusalem my four deadly acts of judgment, sword, famine, wild animals, and pestilence, to cut off humans and animals from it!^(E)

²⁰ Therefore, I will gather you to your ancestors, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring on this place.’ ” They took the message back to the king.

¹⁹ Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?”^(A)

²⁹ “Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the disaster in his days, but in his son’s days I will bring the disaster on his house.”^(A)