Isaiah 36-38
GOD’S WORD Translation
The Lord Rescues Judah from the Assyrians(A)
36 In Hezekiah’s fourteenth year as king, King Sennacherib of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. 2 Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. He stood at the channel for the Upper Pool on the road to Laundryman’s Field.
3 Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace and was the son of Hilkiah, Shebna the scribe, and Joah, who was the royal historian and the son of Asaph, went out to the field commander. 4 The field commander said to them, “Tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: What makes you so confident? 5 You give useless advice about getting ready for war. Whom, then, do you trust for support in your rebellion against me? 6 Look! When you trust Egypt, you’re trusting a broken stick for a staff. If you lean on it, it stabs your hand and goes through it. This is what Pharaoh (the king of Egypt) is like for everyone who trusts him. 7 Suppose you tell me, “We’re trusting the Lord our God.” He’s the god whose places of worship and altars Hezekiah got rid of. Hezekiah told Judah and Jerusalem, “Worship at this altar.” ’
8 “Now, make a deal with my master, the king of Assyria. I’ll give you 2,000 horses if you can put riders on them. 9 How can you defeat my master’s lowest-ranking officers when you trust Egypt for chariots and horses?
10 “Have I come to destroy this country without the Lord on my side? The Lord said to me, ‘Attack this country, and destroy it.’ ”
11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the field commander, “Speak to us in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in the Judean language as long as there are people on the wall listening.”
12 But the field commander asked, “Did my master send me to tell these things only to you and your master? Didn’t he send me to the men sitting on the wall who will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine with you?”
13 Then the field commander stood and shouted loudly in the Judean language, “Listen to the great king, the king of Assyria. 14 This is what the king says: Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you. He can’t rescue you. 15 Don’t let Hezekiah get you to trust the Lord by saying, ‘The Lord will certainly rescue us, and this city will not be put under the control of the king of Assyria.’ 16 Don’t listen to Hezekiah, because this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me! Come out, and give yourselves up to me! Everyone will eat from his own grapevine and fig tree and drink from his own cistern. 17 Then I will come and take you away to a country like your own. It’s a country with grain and new wine, a country with bread and vineyards. 18 Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you by saying to you, ‘The Lord will rescue us.’ Did any of the gods of the nations rescue their countries from the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Did they rescue Samaria from my control? 20 Did the gods of these countries rescue them from my control? Could the Lord then rescue Jerusalem from my control?”
21 They were silent and didn’t say anything to him because the king commanded them not to answer him.
22 Then Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace and was son of Hilkiah, Shebna the scribe, and Joah, who was the royal historian and the son of Asaph, went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn in grief. They told him the message from the field commander.
37 When King Hezekiah heard the message, he tore his clothes in grief, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the Lord’s temple. 2 Then he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the scribe, and the leaders of the priests, clothed in sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz.
3 They said to him, “This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day filled with misery, punishment, and disgrace. We are like a woman who is about to give birth but doesn’t have the strength to do it. 4 The Lord your God may have heard the words of the field commander. His master, the king of Assyria, sent him to defy the living God. The Lord your God may punish him because of the message that the Lord your God heard. Pray for the few people who are left.”
5 So King Hezekiah’s men went to Isaiah. 6 Isaiah answered them, “Say this to your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: Don’t be afraid of the message that you heard when the Assyrian king’s assistants slandered me. 7 I’m going to put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own country. I’ll have him assassinated in his own country.’ ”
8 The field commander returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah. He had heard that the king left Lachish. 9 Now, Sennacherib heard that King Tirhakah of Sudan was coming to fight him.
When he heard this, he again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10 “Tell King Hezekiah of Judah, ‘Don’t let the god whom you trust deceive you by saying that Jerusalem will not be put under the control of the king of Assyria. 11 You heard what the kings of Assyria did to all countries, how they totally destroyed them. Will you be rescued? 12 Did the gods of the nations which my ancestors destroyed rescue Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the cities of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’ ”
14 Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers, read it, and went to the Lord’s temple. He spread it out in front of the Lord 15 and prayed to the Lord, 16 “Lord of Armies, God of Israel, you are enthroned over the angels.[a] You alone are God of the kingdoms of the world. You made heaven and earth. 17 Turn your ear toward me, Lord, and listen. Open your eyes, Lord, and see. Listen to the entire message that Sennacherib sent to defy the living God. 18 It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have leveled every country.[b] 19 They have thrown the gods from these countries into fires because these gods aren’t real gods. They’re only wooden and stone statues made by human hands. So the Assyrians have destroyed them. 20 Now, Lord our God, rescue us from Assyria’s control so that all the kingdoms on earth will know that you alone are the Lord.”
Isaiah’s Prophecy against King Sennacherib of Assyria(B)
21 Then Isaiah, son of Amoz, sent a message to Hezekiah, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: You prayed to me about King Sennacherib of Assyria. 22 This is the message that the Lord speaks to him,
‘My dear people in Zion despise you and laugh at you.
My people in Jerusalem shake their heads behind your back.
23 Whom are you defying and slandering?
Against whom are you shouting?
Who are you looking at so arrogantly?
It is the Holy One of Israel!
24 Through your servants you defy the Lord and say,
“With my many chariots I’ll ride up the high mountains,
up the slopes of Lebanon.
I’ll cut down its tallest cedars and its finest cypresses.
I’ll come to its most distant heights
and its most fertile forests.
25 I’ll dig wells and drink water.
I’ll dry up all the streams of Egypt
with the trampling of my feet.”
26 “ ‘Haven’t you heard? I did this long ago.
I planned it in the distant past.
Now I make it happen so that you will turn fortified cities
into piles of rubble.
27 Those who live in these cities are weak, discouraged, and ashamed.
They will be like plants in the field,
like fresh, green grass on the roofs,
dried up by the east wind.
28 I know when you ⌞get up⌟ and sit down,
when you go out and come in,
and how you rage against me.
29 Since you rage against me and your boasting has reached my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bridle in your mouth.
I will make you go back the way you came.
30 “ ‘And this will be a sign for you, Hezekiah: You will eat what grows by itself this year, and the next year you will eat what comes up by itself. But in the third year you will plant and harvest, plant vineyards, and eat what is produced. 31 Those few people from the nation of Judah who escape will again take root and produce crops. 32 Those few people will go out from Jerusalem, and those who escape will go out from Mount Zion. The Lord of Armies is determined to do this.’
33 “This is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:
He will never come into this city,
shoot an arrow here,
hold a shield in front of it,
or put up dirt ramps to attack it.
34 He will go back the way he came,
and he won’t come into this city,”
declares the Lord of Armies.
35 “I will shield this city to rescue it for my sake
and for the sake of my servant David.”
36 The Lord’s angel went out and killed 185,000 ⌞soldiers⌟ in the Assyrian camp. When the Judeans got up early in the morning, they saw all the corpses.
37 Then King Sennacherib of Assyria left. He went home to Nineveh and stayed there. 38 While he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, assassinated him and escaped to the land of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon succeeded him as king.
Hezekiah’s Illness(C)
38 In those days Hezekiah became sick and was about to die. The prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, came to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: Give final instructions to your household, because you’re about to die. You won’t get well.”
2 Hezekiah turned to the wall and prayed to the Lord. 3 “Please, Lord, remember how I’ve lived faithfully and sincerely in your presence. I’ve done what you consider right.” And he cried bitterly.
4 Then the Lord spoke his word to Isaiah, 5 “Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘This is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: I’ve heard your prayer. I’ve seen your tears. I’m going to give you 15 more years to live. 6 I’ll rescue you and defend this city from the control of the king of Assyria.’ ”
21 Then Isaiah said, “Take a fig cake, and place it over the boil so that the king will get well.”[c]
22 Hezekiah asked, “What is the sign that I’ll go to the Lord’s temple?”
7 ⌞Isaiah said,⌟ “This is your sign from the Lord that he will do what he promises. 8 The sun made a shadow that went down the stairway of Ahaz’s upper palace. I’m going to make the shadow go back ten steps.” So the sun on the stairway went back up the ten steps it had gone down.
9 King Hezekiah of Judah wrote this after he was sick and became well again:
10 I thought that in the prime of my life
I would go down to the gates of Sheol
and be robbed of the rest of my life.
11 I thought that I wouldn’t see the Lord in this world.
Even with all the people in the world,
I thought I would never see another person.
12 My life was over.
You rolled it up like a shepherd’s tent.
You rolled up my life like a weaver.
You cut me off from the loom.
You ended my life in one day.
13 I cried out until morning
as if a lion had crushed all my bones.
You ended my life in one day.
14 I chirped like swallows and cranes.
I cooed like doves.
My eyes were tired from looking up to heaven.
I’ve suffered miserably, O Lord!
Please help me!
15 What can I say now that he has spoken to me?
He has done this.
I will be careful the rest of my life because of my bitter experience.
16 Lord, people live in spite of such things,
and I have the will to live in spite of them.
You give me health and keep me alive.
17 Now my bitter experience turns into peace.
You have saved me and kept me from the rotting pit.
You have thrown all my sins behind you.
18 Sheol doesn’t thank you!
Death doesn’t praise you!
Those who go down to the pit cannot expect you to be faithful.
19 Those who are living praise you as I do today.
Fathers make your faithfulness known to their children.
20 The Lord is going to rescue me,
so let us play stringed instruments.
We live our lives in the Lord’s temple.
Footnotes
- 37:16 Or “cherubim.”
- 37:18 Dead Sea Scrolls, Greek; Masoretic Text “every country and their country.”
- 38:21 Verses 21 and 22 have been placed after verse 6 to communicate the order of the account more clearly in English. According to most scholars, if these verses were originally in Isaiah 38, they most likely ended up being misplaced. See 2 Kings 20:7–8 for the proper placement of these verses in the narrative.
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