Isaiah 37

New American Standard Bible

Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah’s Help

37 Now ^(A)when King Hezekiah heard the report, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and entered the house of the Lord. ²Then he sent ^(B)Eliakim, who was in charge of the household, with ^(C)Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to ^(D)Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. ³And they said to him, “This is what Hezekiah says: ‘This day is a ^(E)day of distress, rebuke, and humiliation; for ^(F)children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to ^[a]deliver them. ⁴Perhaps the Lord your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to ^(G)taunt the living God, and will avenge the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for ^(H)the remnant that is left.’”

⁵So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. ⁶And Isaiah said to them, “This is what you shall say to your master: ‘This is what the Lord says: “^(I)Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. ⁷Behold, I am going to put a spirit in him so that he will ^(J)hear news and ^(K)return to his own land. And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.”’”

⁸Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against ^(L)Libnah, for he had heard that ^[b]the king had left ^(M)Lachish. ⁹Now he ^(N)heard them say regarding Tirhakah king of ^[c]^(O)Cush, “He has come out to fight against you,” and when he heard it he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰“This is what you shall say to Hezekiah king of ^[d]Judah: ‘^(P)Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by saying, “Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.” ¹¹^(Q)Behold, you yourself have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them completely. So will you be saved? ¹²Did the gods of the nations which my fathers destroyed save them: ^(R)Gozan, ^(S)Haran, Rezeph, and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar? ¹³Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah?’”

Hezekiah’s Prayer in the Temple

¹⁴Then Hezekiah took the ^[e]letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the Lord and ^[f]spread it out before the Lord. ¹⁵Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying, ¹⁶“Lord of armies, God of Israel, ^(T)who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the ^(U)God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. ^(V)You made heaven and earth. ¹⁷^(W)Incline Your ear, Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, Lord, and see; and ^(X)listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to ^(Y)taunt the living God. ¹⁸Truly, Lord, the ^(Z)kings of Assyria have laid waste all the countries and their lands, ¹⁹and have thrown their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but only the ^(AA)work of human hands, wood and stone. So they have ^(AB)destroyed them. ²⁰But now Lord, our God, ^(AC)save us from his hand, so that ^(AD)all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, ^[g]Lord, are God.”

God Answers through Isaiah

²¹Then ^(AE)Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, ²²this is the word that the Lord has spoken against him:

“She has shown contempt for you and derided you,
The ^(AF)virgin ^(AG)daughter of Zion;
The daughter of Jerusalem has ^(AH)shaken her head behind you!
²³Whom have you ^(AI)taunted and blasphemed?
And against whom have you raised your voice
And ^[h]haughtily ^(AJ)raised your eyes?
Against the ^(AK)Holy One of Israel!
²⁴Through your servants you have taunted the Lord,
And you have said, ‘With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains,
To the remotest parts of ^(AL)Lebanon;
And I cut down its tall ^(AM)cedars and its choice junipers.
And I will come to its ^[i]highest peak, its thickest ^(AN)forest.
²⁵I dug wells and drank waters,
And ^(AO)with the sole of my feet I dried up
All the canals of ^[j]Egypt.’
²⁶^(AP)Have you not heard?
Long ago I did it,
From ancient times I ^(AQ)planned it.
Now ^(AR)I have brought it about
That ^(AS)you would turn fortified cities into ^(AT)ruined heaps.
²⁷Therefore their inhabitants were ^[k]powerless,
They were shattered and put to shame;
They were like the ^(AU)vegetation of the field and the green grass,
Like ^(AV)grass on the housetops ^[l]that is scorched before it has grown.
²⁸But I ^(AW)know your sitting down,
Your going out, your coming in,
And your raging against Me.
²⁹Because of your raging against Me
And because your ^(AX)complacency has come up to My ears,
I will put My ^(AY)hook in your nose
And My ^(AZ)bridle in your lips,
And I will turn you back ^(BA)by the way that you came.

³⁰“Then this shall be the sign for you: ^[m]you will eat this year what ^(BB)grows of itself, in the second year what grows from the same, and in the third year sow, harvest, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. ³¹The ^(BC)survivors that are ^(BD)left of the house of Judah will again ^(BE)take root downward and bear fruit upward. ³²For out of Jerusalem a ^(BF)remnant will go, and out of Mount Zion survivors. The ^(BG)zeal of the Lord of armies will perform this.”’

³³“Therefore, this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria: ‘He will not come to this city nor shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield, nor heap up an ^(BH)assault ramp against it. ³⁴^(BI)By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he will not come to this city,’ declares the Lord. ³⁵‘For I will ^(BJ)protect this city to save it ^(BK)for My own sake, and for My servant David’s sake.’”

Assyrians Destroyed

³⁶Then the ^(BL)angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when the rest got up early in the morning, behold, all of ^[n]the 185,000 were ^[o]dead. ³⁷So Sennacherib the king of Assyria departed and ^[p]returned home and lived in ^(BM)Nineveh. ³⁸Then it came about, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword; and they escaped to the land of ^(BN)Ararat. And his son ^(BO)Esarhaddon became king in his place.

Footnotes

Isaiah 37:3 Lit give birth
Isaiah 37:8 Lit he
Isaiah 37:9 Or Ethiopia
Isaiah 37:10 Lit Judah, saying
Isaiah 37:14 Lit letters
Isaiah 37:14 Lit Hezekiah spread
Isaiah 37:20 As in DSS and 2 Kin 19:19; MT are the Lord
Isaiah 37:23 Lit on high
Isaiah 37:24 Lit farthest height
Isaiah 37:25 Or the besieged place
Isaiah 37:27 Lit short of hand
Isaiah 37:27 As in DSS and 2 Kin 19:26; MT and as a terraced field
Isaiah 37:30 Lit eating
Isaiah 37:36 Lit them
Isaiah 37:36 Lit dead bodies
Isaiah 37:37 Lit went and returned

Revelation 7

New American Standard Bible

An Interlude

7 After this I saw ^(A)four angels standing at the ^(B)four corners of the earth, holding back ^(C)the four winds of the earth ^(D)so that no wind would blow on the earth, or on the sea, or on any tree. ²And I saw another angel ascending ^(E)from the rising of the sun, holding the ^(F)seal of ^(G)the living God; and he called out with a loud voice to the ^(H)four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, ³saying, “^(I)Do not harm the earth, or the sea, or the trees until we have ^(J)sealed the bond-servants of our God on their ^(K)foreheads.”

The 144,000

⁴And I heard the ^(L)number of those who were sealed: ^(M)144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:

⁵from the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand were sealed, from the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand, from the tribe of Gad twelve thousand, ⁶from the tribe of Asher twelve thousand, from the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand, from the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand, ⁷from the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand, from the tribe of Levi twelve thousand, from the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand, ⁸from the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand, from the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand, and from the tribe of Benjamin, twelve thousand were sealed.

A Multitude from the Tribulation

⁹After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from ^(N)every nation and all the tribes, peoples, and languages, standing ^(O)before the throne and ^(P)before the Lamb, clothed in ^(Q)white robes, and ^(R)palm branches were in their hands; ¹⁰and they *cried out with a loud voice, saying,

“^(S)Salvation belongs to our God ^(T)who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

¹¹And all the angels were standing ^(U)around the throne and around ^(V)the elders and the ^(W)four living creatures; and they ^(X)fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, ¹²saying,

“^(Y)Amen, ^(Z)blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power, and might belong to our God forever and ever. ^(AA)Amen.”

¹³Then one of the elders ^(AB)responded, saying to me, “These who are clothed in the ^(AC)white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?” ¹⁴I ^[a]said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the ^(AD)great tribulation, and they have ^(AE)washed their robes and made them ^(AF)white in the ^(AG)blood of the Lamb. ¹⁵For this reason they are ^(AH)before the throne of God, and they ^(AI)serve Him day and night in His ^[b]^(AJ)temple; and ^(AK)He who sits on the throne will spread His ^(AL)tabernacle over them. ¹⁶^(AM)They will no longer hunger nor thirst, nor will the sun ^[c]beat down on them, nor any scorching heat; ¹⁷for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their ^(AN)shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the ^[d]^(AO)water of life; and ^(AP)God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”