Beginning

36 Now, in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, King of Assyria, came up against all the strong cities of Judah, and took them.

² And the King of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish toward Jerusalem, to king Hezekiah, with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool, in the path of the launderer’s field.

³ Then, Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah (the steward of the house) and Shebna (the chancellor) and Joah (the son of Asaph, the recorder) came forth to him.

⁴ And Rabshakeh said to them, “Please tell Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “What confidence is this, in which you trust?

⁵ “I tell you, surely your eloquence, counsel and strength are for war. On whom, then, do you trust, that you rebel against me?

⁶ “Lo, you trust in this broken staff of a reed, in Egypt, whereupon if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it, as is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all who trust in him.

⁷ “But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the LORD our God,’ is not that He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah took down and said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’?

⁸ “Now, therefore, give hostages to my lord, the king of Assyria. And I will give you two thousand horses (if you are able, on your part), to set riders upon them.

⁹ “For how can you despise any captain of the least of my lord’s servants and still put your trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

¹⁰ “And have I now come up without the LORD to this land, to destroy it? The LORD said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it’.”

¹¹ Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in the Aramaic language. For we understand it. And do not talk with us in the Jews’ tongue in front of the people who are on the wall.”

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, who eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”

¹³ So Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and said, “Hear the words of the great king, of the king of Assyria!

¹⁴ “Thus says the king, ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you (for he shall not be able to deliver you)

¹⁵ ‘or let Hezekiah make you to trust in the LORD, saying, “The LORD will surely deliver us. This city shall not be given over into the hand of the king of Assyria.”

¹⁶ ‘Do not listen to Hezekiah! For thus says the king of Assyria, “Make an appointment with me. And come out to me, so that every man may eat of his own vine, and every man of his own fig tree, and every man drink the water of his own well,

¹⁷ “until I come and bring you to a land like your own land, a land of wheat and wine, a land of bread and vineyards,

¹⁸ “lest Hezekiah deceives you, saying, ‘The LORD will deliver us.’ Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

¹⁹ “Where is the god of Hamath, and of Arpad? Where is the god of Sepharvaim? Or how have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

²⁰ “Who is he among all the gods of these lands who has delivered their country out of my hand. And the LORD will deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?”’”

²¹ Then they kept silent. And did not answer him a word. For the king’s commandment was, saying, “Do not answer him.”

²² Then came Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah (the steward of the house) and Shebna (the chancellor) and Joah (the son of Asaph, the recorder) to Hezekiah with torn clothes, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

37 And when King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and came into the House of the LORD.

² And he sent Eliakim (the steward of the house), and Shebna (the chancellor), with the elders of the priests, clothed in sackcloth, to Isaiah the Prophet, the son of Amoz.

³ And he said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of tribulation and of rebuke and blasphemy. For the children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring forth.

⁴ ‘If so be the LORD your God has heard the words of Rabshakeh—whom the king of Assyria, his master, has sent to rail on the living God, and to reproach him with words which the LORD your God has heard—then lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’”

⁵ So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

⁶ And Isaiah said to them, “Say this to your master, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Do not be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me.

⁷ “Behold, I will send a blast upon him. And he shall hear a noise and return to his own land. And I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.”’”

⁸ So Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah (for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish).

⁹ He also heard men say of Tirhakah, King of Ethiopia, “He has come out to fight against you.” And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

¹⁰ “Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah, King of Judah, saying, ‘Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”

¹¹ ‘Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands in destroying them. And shall you be delivered?

¹² ‘Have the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed, such as Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the children of Eden, who were at Telassar?

¹³ ‘Where is the king of Hamath and the king of Arpad and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivah?’”

¹⁴ So Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it. And he went up into the House of the LORD. And Hezekiah spread it before the LORD.

¹⁵ And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD, saying,

¹⁶ “O LORD of Hosts, God of Israel, Who dwells between the Cherubims. You are God—You alone—over all the kingdoms of the Earth. You have made Heaven and Earth.

¹⁷ “Incline Your Ear, O LORD, and hear. Open Your Eyes, O LORD, and see. And hear all the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to blaspheme the living God.

¹⁸ “It is true, O LORD, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all lands, and their country,

¹⁹ “and have cast their gods in the fire. For they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood or stone. Therefore, they destroyed them.

²⁰ “Now, therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the Earth may know that You only are the LORD.”

²¹ Then Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘Because you have prayed to Me concerning Sennacherib, King of Assyria,

²² ‘this is the Word that the LORD has spoken against him, “The virgin, the Daughter of Zion, has despised you, laughed you to scorn. The Daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.

²³ “Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? And against Whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel.

²⁴ “By your servants you have reproached the LORD, and said, ‘By the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the top of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down its high cedars and its fair fir trees. And I will go up to the heights of its top, to the forest of its fruitful places.

²⁵ ‘I have dug and drunk the waters. And with the soles of my feet I have dried all the rivers of Egypt.’

²⁶ “Have you not heard how I have made it in ancient times, and have formed it long ago? And should I now bring it to pass that it be destroyed on ruinous heaps, as defensed cities,

²⁷ “whose inhabitants have little power, and are afraid and confounded? They are like the grass of the field and green herbs, grass on the house tops, or grain blasted before it is grown.

²⁸ “But I know your dwelling, and your going out, and your coming in, and your fury against Me.

²⁹ “Because you rage against Me, and your tumult has come to My Ears, therefore I will put My hook in your nostrils, and my bridle in your lips, and will bring you back the same way you came.

³⁰ “And this shall be a sign to you. This year, you shall eat whatever grows by itself, and the second year whatever grows without sowing. And in the third year, sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat its fruit.

³¹ “And the remnant that has escaped of the House of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward.

³² “For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and those who escape out of Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts shall do this.

³³ “Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: ‘He shall not enter into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor build a siege mound against it.

³⁴ ‘By the same way that he came, he shall return, and not come into this city,’ says the LORD.

³⁵ “For I will defend this city to save it, for My own sake and for My servant, David’s, sake.”’”

³⁶ Then the Angel of the LORD went out and struck one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of Assyria. So, when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

³⁷ So, Sennacherib, King of Assyria, departed and went away and returned and dwelt at Nineveh.

³⁸ And as he was in the temple, worshiping Nisroch, his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, killed him with the sword. And they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon, his son, reigned in his place.

38 About that time Hezekiah was sick and near death. And the Prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, came to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Put your house in order. For you shall die and not live.’”

² Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD,

³ and said, “I beg you, LORD, remember now how I have walked before You in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴ Then came the Word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying,

⁵ “Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the LORD God of David, your father: “I have heard your prayer, and seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your days.

⁶ “And I will deliver you out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and this city. For I will defend this city.

⁷ “And you shall have this sign from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that He has spoken:

⁸ “Behold, I will bring back the shadow of the sundial (by which it has gone down on the sundial of Ahaz, with the Sun) ten degrees backward.”’” So, the Sun reversed by ten degrees on the sundial of which it had gone down.

⁹ The writing of Hezekiah, King of Judah, when he had been sick and was recovered from his sickness:

¹⁰ “I said at the cessation of my days, ‘I shall go to the gates of the grave. I am deprived of the residue of my years.’

¹¹ “I said, ‘I shall not see the LORD, the LORD in the land of the living. I shall not see man anymore among the inhabitants of the world.

¹² ‘My habitation has departed, and is removed from me, like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up my life, like a weaver. He will cut me off from the loom. From day to night You will make an end of me.

¹³ ‘I reckoned until the morning, but He broke all my bones like a lion. From day to night will You make an end of me.

¹⁴ ‘Like a crane, a swallow, so I chattered. I mourned as a dove. My eyes were lifted up on high. O LORD, it has oppressed me. Comfort me.

¹⁵ ‘What shall I say? For He has said it to me, and He has done it. I shall walk weakly in the bitterness of my soul all my years.

¹⁶ ‘O LORD, by these things You sustain life. And in these things is the life of my spirit, by which You cause me to dream and give me life.

¹⁷ ‘Behold, for peace I had bitter grief. But it was Your pleasure to deliver my soul from the pit of corruption. For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.

¹⁸ ‘For the grave cannot confess You. Death cannot praise You. Those who go down into the pit cannot hope for Your truth.

¹⁹ ‘But the living, the living, he shall confess You, as I do this day. The father shall declare Your truth to the children.

²⁰ ‘The LORD saves me. Therefore, we will sing my song all the days of our life in the House of the LORD.’”

²¹ Then Isaiah said, “Take a lump of dry figs and lay it upon the boil. And he shall recover.”

²² Also, Hezekiah had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up into the House of the LORD?”

39 At the same time, Merodach-Baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babel, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah. For he had heard that he had been sick and had recovered.

² And Hezekiah was glad for them, and showed them the house of the treasures, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his kingdom, that Hezekiah did not show them.

³ Then came Isaiah the Prophet to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? And from where have they come to you?” And Hezekiah said, “They have come to me from a far country, from Babel.”

⁴ Then he said, “What have they seen in your house?” And Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.”

⁵ And Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the Word of the LORD of Hosts,

⁶ ‘Behold, the days come that all that is in your house, and which your fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babel. Nothing shall be left,’ says the LORD.

⁷ ‘And your sons who shall proceed out of you, which you shall beget, they shall take away. And they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babel.’”

⁸ Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, “The Word of the LORD which you have spoken is good.” And he said, “For there is peace and truth in my days.”

40 “Comfort! Comfort My people,” says your God.

² “Speak comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry to her, so that her warfare is accomplished, and that her iniquity is pardoned. For she has received double from the LORD’s Hand for all her sins.”

³ A voice cries in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the LORD! Make straight a path for our God in the desert!

⁴ “Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill shall be made low. And the crooked shall be straight and the rough places level.

⁵ “And the Glory of the LORD shall be revealed. And all flesh shall see it together. For the Mouth of the LORD has spoken it.”

⁶ A voice said, “Cry!” And he said, “What shall I cry? All flesh is grass and all its beauty as the flowers of the field.

⁷ “The grass withers, the flower fades, because the Spirit of the LORD blows upon it. Surely, the people are grass.

⁸ “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God shall stand forever.”

⁹ O Zion, that brings good tidings, get yourself up into the high mountain. O Jerusalem, that brings good tidings, lift up your voice with strength! Lift it up! Do not be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!”

¹⁰ Behold, the LORD God will come with power. And His Arm shall rule for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him.

¹¹ He shall feed His flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with His Arm and carry them in His Bosom and shall guide those with young.

¹² Who has measured the waters in his fist, and counted heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the Earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains on a scale, and the hills in a balance?

¹³ Who has instructed the Spirit of the LORD, or was His counselor, or taught Him?

¹⁴ Of whom took He counsel, and who instructed Him and taught Him in the way of judgment, or taught Him knowledge, and showed to Him the way of understanding?

¹⁵ Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the dust of the balance. Behold, He takes away the isles as a little dust.

¹⁶ And Lebanon is not sufficient for fire, nor its beasts sufficient for a Burnt Offering.

¹⁷ All nations are as nothing before Him. And they are counted to Him less than nothing and vanity.

¹⁸ To whom, then, will you liken God? Or what likeness will you set up for Him?

¹⁹ The workman melts an image, or the goldsmith beats it out in gold, or the silversmith in silver plates.

²⁰ Do not the poor choose a tree that will not rot for an oblation? He also seeks a cunning workman to prepare an image that shall not be shaken.

²¹ Know you nothing? Have you not heard it? Has it not been told to you from the beginning? Have you not understood it from the foundation of the Earth?

²² He sits upon the circle of the Earth, and its inhabitants are as grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens as a curtain, and spreads them out as a tent in which to dwell.

²³ He brings the princes to nothing, makes the judges of the Earth as vanity,

²⁴ as though they were not planted, as though they were not sown, as though their stock took no root in the Earth. For He but blew upon them and they withered. And the whirlwind will take them away as stubble.

²⁵ “To whom now will you liken Me, that I should be like?” says the Holy One.

²⁶ Lift up your eyes on high and behold who has created these things, and brings out their armies by number, and calls them all by names. By the greatness of His power and mighty strength nothing fails.

²⁷ Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD. And my judgment is passed over by my God?”

²⁸ Do you not know? Have you not heard that the everlasting God, the LORD, has created the ends of the Earth? He neither faints nor is weary. There is no searching of His understanding.

²⁹ He gives strength to him who faints. And to him who has no strength, he increases power.

³⁰ Even the youth shall faint and be weary. And the young men shall stumble and fall.

³¹ But those who wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength. They shall ascend with wings, as the eagles. They shall run and not be weary. And they shall walk and not faint.

41 “Keep silent before me, O islands, and let the people renew strength. Let them come near. And let them speak. Let us come together into judgment.

² “Who raised up justice from the East and called him to His Foot, gave the nations before him and subdued the kings? He gave them as dust to his sword, as scattered stubble to his bow.

³ “He pursued them and passed safely by the way that he had not gone with his feet.

⁴ “Who has wrought and done it? He Who calls the generations from the beginning. I, the LORD, am the first. And with the last I am the same.

⁵ “The isles saw it and feared. The ends of the Earth were afraid, drew near and came.

⁶ “Every man helped his neighbor, and said to his brother, ‘Be strong.’

⁷ “So the workman comforted the refiner (he who struck with the hammer, and who struck the anvil) saying, ‘It is ready for soldering.’ And he fastened it with nails, so that it would not be moved.

⁸ “But you, Israel, are My servant, you, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, My friend.

⁹ “For I have taken you from the ends of the Earth and called you before its chief and said to you, ‘You are My servant. I have chosen you and not cast you away.

¹⁰ ‘Fear not. For I am with you. Do not be afraid. For I am your God. I will strengthen you, and help you, and will sustain you with the right hand of My justice.’

¹¹ “Behold, all those who provoke you shall be ashamed and confounded. They shall be as nothing. And those who strive with you shall perish.

¹² “You shall seek them and shall not find them. The men of your strife, they shall be as nothing, and the men who war against you as a non-existent thing.

¹³ “For I, the LORD your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, ‘Do not fear. I will help you.

¹⁴ ‘Do not fear, worm Jacob, you men of Israel. I will help you,’ says the LORD, and your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵ “Behold, I will make you a thresher, and a new threshing sled having teeth. You shall thresh the mountains and bring them to powder, and shall make the hills as chaff.

¹⁶ “You shall fan them and the wind shall carry them away and the whirlwind shall scatter them. And you shall rejoice in the LORD, shall glory in the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁷ “When the poor and the needy seek water and there is none (their tongue fails for thirst), I the LORD will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

¹⁸ “I will open rivers on the tops of the hills, and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness as a pool of water, and the wasteland as springs of water.

¹⁹ “I will set the cedar in the wilderness, the Shittah, and the myrtle tree, and the pine tree. I will set the fir tree in the wilderness, the elm and the box tree, together.

²⁰ “Therefore, let them see and know. And let them consider and understand together that the Hand of the LORD has done this. And the Holy One of Israel has created it.

²¹ “‘Stand to your cause,’ says the LORD, ‘Bring forth your strong reasons,’ says the King of Jacob.

²² “Let them bring them forth. And let them tell us what shall come. Let them show the former things, what they were, so that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them. Or declare to us things to come.

²³ “Show the things that are to come hereafter, so that we may know that you are gods. Yea, do good or do evil, so that we may see it and look away together.

²⁴ “Behold, you are of no value. And you are made nothing, having chosen an abomination by them.

²⁵ “I have raised up from the North, and he shall come. From the East Sun shall he call upon My Name, and shall come upon princes as upon clay, and as the potter treads mire underfoot.

²⁶ “Who has declared from the beginning, so that we may know, or before time, so that we may say, ‘He is righteous’? Surely there is no one who shows. Surely there is no one who declares. Surely there is no one who hears your words.

²⁷ “I am the First, Who says to Zion, ‘Look! Look at them!’ And I will give to Jerusalem one who shall bring good tidings.

²⁸ “But when I looked, there was no one. And when I inquired of them, there was no counselor. And when I demanded of them, they did not answer a word.

²⁹ “Behold, they are all wickedness. Their work is nothing. Their images are wind and confusion.”