Isaiah 35-36
New American Standard Bible
Zion’s Happy Future
35 The (A)wilderness and the desert will rejoice,
And the [a](B)desert will shout for joy and blossom;
Like the crocus
2 It will (C)blossom profusely
And (D)rejoice with joy and jubilation.
The (E)glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
The majesty of (F)Carmel and Sharon.
They will see the (G)glory of the Lord,
The majesty of our God.
3 (H)Strengthen the [b]exhausted, and make the [c]feeble strong.
4 Say to those with (I)anxious heart,
“Take courage, fear not.
Behold, your God will come with (J)vengeance;
The (K)retribution of God will come,
But He will (L)save you.”
5 Then the (M)eyes of those who are blind will be opened,
And the ears of those who are deaf will be unstopped.
6 Then those who (N)limp will leap like a deer,
And the (O)tongue of those who cannot speak will shout for joy.
For waters will burst forth in the (P)wilderness,
And streams in the [d]desert.
7 The [e]scorched land will become a pool
And the thirsty ground (Q)springs of water;
In the (R)haunt of jackals, its resting place,
Grass becomes reeds and rushes.
8 (S)A highway will be there, (T)a roadway,
And it will be called the Highway of (U)Holiness.
The unclean will not travel on it,
But it will be for the one who walks that way,
And (V)fools will not wander on it.
9 No (W)lion will be there,
Nor will any vicious animal go up on it;
[f]They will not be found there.
But (X)the redeemed will walk there,
10 And (Y)the redeemed of the Lord will return
And come to Zion with joyful shouting,
And everlasting joy will be on their heads.
They will obtain gladness and joy,
And (Z)sorrow and sighing will flee away.
Sennacherib Invades Judah
36 (AA)Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, (AB)Sennacherib king of Assyria marched against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them. 2 And the (AC)king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a large army. And he stood by the (AD)conduit of the upper pool on the road to the [g]fuller’s field. 3 Then (AE)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and (AF)Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the secretary, went out to him.
4 And (AG)Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria says: “What is this confidence that you have? 5 I say, ‘Your plan and strength for the war are only [h]empty words.’ Now on whom have you relied, that (AH)you have revolted against me? 6 Behold, you have relied on the (AI)staff of this broken reed, on Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his [i]hand and pierce it. (AJ)So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him. 7 But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ is it not He (AK)whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’? 8 Now then, come make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to put riders on them! 9 How then can you [j]drive back even one [k]official of the least of my master’s servants and [l](AL)rely on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? 10 And have I now come up [m]without the Lord’s approval against this land to destroy it? (AM)The Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’”’”
11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in (AN)Aramaic, for we [n]understand it; and do not speak to us in [o](AO)Judean [p]so that the people who are on the wall hear you.” 12 But Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”
13 Then Rabshakeh stood and (AP)called out with a loud voice in Judean and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! 14 This is what the king says: ‘Do not let Hezekiah (AQ)deceive you, for he will not be able to save you; 15 and do not let Hezekiah lead you to (AR)rely on the Lord, saying, “The Lord will certainly save us. This city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria!” 16 Do not listen to Hezekiah,’ for this is what the king of Assyria says: ‘[q]Surrender to me and come out to me, and eat, each one, of his (AS)vine and each of his fig tree, and each drink of the (AT)waters of his own cistern, 17 until 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. 18 Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you, saying, “(AU)The Lord will save us.” Has any one of the gods of the nations saved his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of (AV)Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of (AW)Sepharvaim? And when have they (AX)saved Samaria from my hand? 20 Who among all the (AY)gods of these lands have saved their land from my hand, that the (AZ)Lord would save Jerusalem from my hand?’”
21 But they were silent and did not (BA)answer him so much as a word; for the king’s command was, “Do not answer him.” 22 Then (BB)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and (BC)Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the secretary, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and reported to him the words of Rabshakeh.
Notas al pie
- Isaiah 35:1 Or Arabah
- Isaiah 35:3 Lit slack hands
- Isaiah 35:3 Lit tottering knees
- Isaiah 35:6 Or Arabah
- Isaiah 35:7 Or mirage
- Isaiah 35:9 Lit It
- Isaiah 36:2 I.e., launderer’s
- Isaiah 36:5 Lit a word of lips
- Isaiah 36:6 Lit palm
- Isaiah 36:9 Lit turn away the face of
- Isaiah 36:9 Or governor
- Isaiah 36:9 Lit rely on for yourself
- Isaiah 36:10 Lit without the Lord
- Isaiah 36:11 Lit hear
- Isaiah 36:11 I.e., Hebrew
- Isaiah 36:11 Lit in the ears of...wall
- Isaiah 36:16 Lit Make with me a blessing
Isaiah 35-36
New Living Translation
Hope for Restoration
35 Even the wilderness and desert will be glad in those days.
The wasteland will rejoice and blossom with spring crocuses.
2 Yes, there will be an abundance of flowers
and singing and joy!
The deserts will become as green as the mountains of Lebanon,
as lovely as Mount Carmel or the plain of Sharon.
There the Lord will display his glory,
the splendor of our God.
3 With this news, strengthen those who have tired hands,
and encourage those who have weak knees.
4 Say to those with fearful hearts,
“Be strong, and do not fear,
for your God is coming to destroy your enemies.
He is coming to save you.”
5 And when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind
and unplug the ears of the deaf.
6 The lame will leap like a deer,
and those who cannot speak will sing for joy!
Springs will gush forth in the wilderness,
and streams will water the wasteland.
7 The parched ground will become a pool,
and springs of water will satisfy the thirsty land.
Marsh grass and reeds and rushes will flourish
where desert jackals once lived.
8 And a great road will go through that once deserted land.
It will be named the Highway of Holiness.
Evil-minded people will never travel on it.
It will be only for those who walk in God’s ways;
fools will never walk there.
9 Lions will not lurk along its course,
nor any other ferocious beasts.
There will be no other dangers.
Only the redeemed will walk on it.
10 Those who have been ransomed by the Lord will return.
They will enter Jerusalem[a] singing,
crowned with everlasting joy.
Sorrow and mourning will disappear,
and they will be filled with joy and gladness.
Assyria Invades Judah
36 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign,[b] King Sennacherib of Assyria came to attack the fortified towns of Judah and conquered them. 2 Then the king of Assyria sent his chief of staff[c] from Lachish with a huge army to confront King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. The Assyrians took up a position beside the aqueduct that feeds water into the upper pool, near the road leading to the field where cloth is washed.[d]
3 These are the officials who went out to meet with them: Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace administrator; Shebna the court secretary; and Joah son of Asaph, the royal historian.
Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem
4 Then the Assyrian king’s chief of staff told them to give this message to Hezekiah:
“This is what the great king of Assyria says: What are you trusting in that makes you so confident? 5 Do you think[e] that mere words can substitute for military skill and strength? Who are you counting on, that you have rebelled against me? 6 On Egypt? If you lean on Egypt, it will be like a reed that splinters beneath your weight and pierces your hand. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, is completely unreliable!
7 “But perhaps you will say to me, ‘We are trusting in the Lord our God!’ But isn’t he the one who was insulted by Hezekiah? Didn’t Hezekiah tear down his shrines and altars and make everyone in Judah and Jerusalem worship only at the altar here in Jerusalem?
8 “I’ll tell you what! Strike a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria. I will give you 2,000 horses if you can find that many men to ride on them! 9 With your tiny army, how can you think of challenging even the weakest contingent of my master’s troops, even with the help of Egypt’s chariots and charioteers? 10 What’s more, do you think we have invaded your land without the Lord’s direction? The Lord himself told us, ‘Attack this land and destroy it!’”
11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Assyrian chief of staff, “Please speak to us in Aramaic, for we understand it well. Don’t speak in Hebrew,[f] for the people on the wall will hear.”
12 But Sennacherib’s chief of staff replied, “Do you think my master sent this message only to you and your master? He wants all the people to hear it, for when we put this city under siege, they will suffer along with you. They will be so hungry and thirsty that they will eat their own dung and drink their own urine.”
13 Then the chief of staff stood and shouted in Hebrew to the people on the wall, “Listen to this message from the great king of Assyria! 14 This is what the king says: Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you. He will never be able to rescue you. 15 Don’t let him fool you into trusting in the Lord by saying, ‘The Lord will surely rescue us. This city will never fall into the hands of the Assyrian king!’
16 “Don’t listen to Hezekiah! These are the terms the king of Assyria is offering: Make peace with me—open the gates and come out. Then each of you can continue eating from your own grapevine and fig tree and drinking from your own well. 17 Then I will arrange to take you to another land like this one—a land of grain and new wine, bread and vineyards.
18 “Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you by saying, ‘The Lord will rescue us!’ Have the gods of any other nations ever saved their people from the king of Assyria? 19 What happened to the gods of Hamath and Arpad? And what about the gods of Sepharvaim? Did any god rescue Samaria from my power? 20 What god of any nation has ever been able to save its people from my power? So what makes you think that the Lord can rescue Jerusalem from me?”
21 But the people were silent and did not utter a word because Hezekiah had commanded them, “Do not answer him.”
22 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace administrator; Shebna the court secretary; and Joah son of Asaph, the royal historian, went back to Hezekiah. They tore their clothes in despair, and they went in to see the king and told him what the Assyrian chief of staff had said.
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Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
