Isaiah 37:16-38:14

English Standard Version

¹⁶“O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, ^(A)enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; ^(B)you have made heaven and earth. ¹⁷^(C)Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear ^(D)all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. ¹⁸Truly, O Lord, ^(E)the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, ¹⁹and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. ²⁰So now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.”

Sennacherib's Fall

²¹Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, ²²this is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him:

“‘She despises you, she scorns you—
^(F)the virgin daughter of Zion;
she wags her head behind you—
the daughter of Jerusalem.

²³“‘Whom have you mocked and reviled?
    Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes to the heights?
    Against ^(G)the Holy One of Israel!
²⁴By your servants you have mocked the Lord,
    and you have said, ^(H)With my many chariots
I have gone up the heights of the mountains,
    to the far recesses of Lebanon,
^(I)to cut down its tallest cedars,
    its choicest cypresses,
to come to its remotest height,
    its most fruitful forest.
²⁵I dug wells
    and drank waters,
to dry up with the sole of my foot
    all ^(J)the streams ^(K)of Egypt.

²⁶^(L)“‘Have you not heard
    that I determined it long ago?
I planned from days of old
    what now I bring to pass,
that you should make fortified cities
    crash into heaps of ruins,
²⁷while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,
    are dismayed and confounded,
and have become like plants of the field
    and like tender grass,
like grass on the housetops,
    blighted^[a] before it is grown.

²⁸“‘I know your sitting down
    and your going out and coming in,
    and your raging against me.
²⁹^(M)Because you have raged against me
    and your complacency has come to my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
    and my bit in your mouth,
and ^(N)I will turn you back on the way
    by which you came.’

³⁰“And this shall be the sign for you: this year you shall eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from that. Then in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. ³¹And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah ^(O)shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. ³²^(P)For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. ^(Q)The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

³³“Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or ^(R)cast up a siege mound against it. ³⁴By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the Lord. ³⁵^(S)For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for ^(T)the sake of my servant David.”

³⁶^(U)And the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. ³⁷Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at ^(V)Nineveh. ³⁸And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword. And after they escaped into the land of ^(W)Ararat, ^(X)Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

Hezekiah's Sickness and Recovery

38 ^(Y)In those days Hezekiah became ^(Z)sick and was at the point of death. And ^(AA)Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: Set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover.”^[b] ²Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, ³and said, “Please, O Lord, remember how ^(AB)I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: ⁵“Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add ^(AC)fifteen years to your life.^[c] ⁶^(AD)I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and will defend this city.

⁷“This shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that he has promised: ⁸^(AE)Behold, I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps.” So the sun turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it had declined.^[d]

⁹A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, after he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:

¹⁰I said, ^(AF)In the middle^[e] of my days
    I must depart;
I am consigned to the gates of Sheol
    for the rest of my years.
¹¹I said, I shall not see the Lord,
    the Lord ^(AG)in the land of the living;
I shall look on man no more
    among the inhabitants of the world.
¹²My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me
    ^(AH)like a shepherd's tent;
^(AI)like a weaver ^(AJ)I have rolled up my life;
    ^(AK)he cuts me off from the loom;
^(AL)from day to night you bring me to an end;
¹³    ^(AM)I calmed myself^[f] until morning;
like a lion ^(AN)he breaks all my bones;
    from day to night you bring me to an end.

¹⁴Like ^(AO)a swallow or a crane I chirp;
^(AP)I moan like a dove.
^(AQ)My eyes are weary with looking upward.
O Lord, I am oppressed; ^(AR)be my pledge of safety!

Notas al pie

Isaiah 37:27 Some Hebrew manuscripts and 2 Kings 19:26; most Hebrew manuscripts a field
Isaiah 38:1 Or live; also verses 9, 21
Isaiah 38:5 Hebrew to your days
Isaiah 38:8 The meaning of the Hebrew verse is uncertain
Isaiah 38:10 Or In the quiet
Isaiah 38:13 Or (with Targum) I cried for help