Isaiah 37:21-35
Evangelical Heritage Version
The Lord Replies to Hezekiah Through Isaiah
21 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah.
The Lord, the God of Israel, says that because you have prayed to him about Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22 the Lord sends you this reply about him.
The virgin daughter of Zion[a] despises you and jeers at you.
The daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head at you in scorn.
23 Who is it whom you have mocked and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted up your proud eyes?
It is against the Holy One of Israel.
24 You have used your servants to mock the Lord.
You have boasted, “I have driven my many chariots
up the high mountains, to the most remote parts of Lebanon.
I cut down its tallest cedars and its best fir trees.
I have reached its highest peak, its most lush forest.
25 I dug wells and drank their water,
and I dried up all the rivers of Egypt with the soles of my feet.”
26 Have you not heard?
I did all this long ago.
I formed all this in ancient times.
Now I caused it all to take place.
I enabled you to destroy fortified cities,
reducing them to heaps of ruins.
27 Their inhabitants were powerless.
Overwhelmed and ashamed,
they were like plants in the field,
like fresh green grass, like grass on a housetop,
and like a field before it has grown.[b]
28 But I know when you stand and when you sit,[c]
when you go out and when you come in,
and how you rage wildly against me.
29 Because you rage against me,
and because your arrogance has reached my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth,
and I will make you go back by the same way that you came.
30 This will be a sign for you:
This year you will eat what grows by itself.
Next year you will eat what springs up from that.
But in the third year, you will sow crops and harvest them.
You will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
31 The surviving remnant of the house of Judah
will again put down roots below and bear fruit above.
32 For from Jerusalem a remnant will go out,
and survivors from Mount Zion.
The zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish this.
33 This is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:
He will not enter this city.
He will not shoot an arrow there.
He will not advance against it with a shield,
and he will not build a siege ramp against it.
34 He will go back by the same route that he came,
and he will not enter this city, declares the Lord.
35 For I will defend this city to save it,
for my own sake,
and for the sake of my servant David.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 37:22 Daughter of Zion is a personification of Jerusalem and the people of Judah.
- Isaiah 37:27 The translation follows the main Hebrew reading of this verse. The parallel text in 2 Kings 19:26 reads scorched before it becomes a full-grown stalk. The Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah reads scorched by the east wind.
- Isaiah 37:28 The translation follows the Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah. The Hebrew does not have when you stand and.
Isaiah 37:21-35
Lexham English Bible
God’s Answer
21 And Isaiah son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel: ‘Because you have prayed to me concerning[a] Sennacherib, king of Assyria, 22 this is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him:
She shows contempt for you; she derides you, virgin daughter of Zion;
she shakes her head behind you, daughter of Jerusalem.
23 Whom have you taunted and blasphemed,
and against whom have you raised up your voice and lifted your eyes upward?
To the holy one of Israel!
24 By the hand of your servants you have taunted the Lord,
and you have said, “With my many chariots,[b]
I myself have gone up the height of the mountains,
to the remote areas of Lebanon.
And I cut off its tall cedars,[c]
the choicest of its junipers.
And I came to the height of its limit,
the forest of its orchard.[d]
25 I myself dug and drank waters,
and I caused all the streams of Egypt to dry up by the sole of my feet.”
26 Have you not heard from a long time ago?[e] I have made it
from days of primeval time, and I formed it.
Now I have brought it about,
and it is for fortified cities to collapse into heaps of destroyed stones.
27 And their inhabitants are weak;[f]
they are dismayed, and they are ashamed;
they have become like plants[g] of the field,
and like greens of grass,
like grass on[h] the roofs
and a cultivated field before[i] the standing grain.
28 And I know your sitting down and your going out,
and your coming in, and your raging against[j] me.
29 Because you were enraged against[k] me,
and your noise[l] has come up to[m] my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bridle on your lips,
and I will turn you back
on the way by which you came.
30 And this shall be the sign for you: the eating of volunteer plants[n] this[o] year, and in the second year self-seeded plants,[p] and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 31 And the remnant of the house of Judah that remain shall grow[q] roots[r] downwards and make fruit upwards.
32 For a remnant shall go out from Jerusalem
and survivors[s] from mountain Zion.
The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will do this.’
33 Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning[t] the king of Assyria:
‘He shall not come to this city,
and he shall not shoot an arrow there,
and he shall not meet it with a shield,
and he shall not heap a siege ramp up against her.
34 He shall return by the way that he came,
and he shall not come to this city,’
declares[u] Yahweh.
35 ‘And I will defend this city, to save it for my sake and for the sake of David, my servant.’”
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Isaiah 37:21 Literally “to”
- Isaiah 37:24 Hebrew “chariot”
- Isaiah 37:24 Literally “the height of its cedars”
- Isaiah 37:24 Or “Carmel”
- Isaiah 37:26 Literally “distant”
- Isaiah 37:27 Literally “short of hand”
- Isaiah 37:27 Hebrew “plant”
- Isaiah 37:27 Or “of”
- Isaiah 37:27 Literally “before the face of”
- Isaiah 37:28 Literally “to”
- Isaiah 37:29 Literally “to”
- Isaiah 37:29 Or “complacency”
- Isaiah 37:29 Literally “in”
- Isaiah 37:30 Hebrew “plant”
- Isaiah 37:30 Literally “the”
- Isaiah 37:30 Hebrew “plant”
- Isaiah 37:31 Literally “add”
- Isaiah 37:31 Hebrew “root”
- Isaiah 37:32 Hebrew “survivor”
- Isaiah 37:33 Or “to”
- Isaiah 37:34 Literally “declaration of”
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