Beginning
Assyria Threatens Jerusalem
36 Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all of the fortified cities of Judah and seized them. 2 The king of Assyria sent his herald[a] from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah. A large army was with him. He stood by the water channel from the upper pool on the road to the launderer’s[b] field. 3 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was the palace administrator, Shebna, who was the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, who was the recorder, came out to meet him.
4 The herald told them this.
Tell Hezekiah this is what the Great King, the king of Assyria, says.
What makes you so confident? 5 Your wisdom and military strength are based on empty promises. Who do you trust, so that you now have rebelled against me? 6 Tell me! Are you really trusting in Egypt to be your staff, that splintered reed that will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it? That is what happens to anyone who relies on Pharaoh king of Egypt.
7 If you say to me that you trust in the Lord your God, isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed? Didn’t Hezekiah tell Judah and Jerusalem to worship at this altar?
8 Now then, make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria. I will give you two thousand horses, if you can find enough riders for them. 9 How can you resist even one officer from among the least of my lord’s servants? How can you put your trust in Egypt for chariots and charioteers?
10 What’s more, have I attacked this land to destroy it without the Lord’s orders? The Lord is the one who said to me, “Go up against this land and destroy it.”
11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the herald, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, because we understand it. Do not speak to us in Hebrew, because there are people on the city wall who are listening.”
12 But the herald replied, “Has my lord sent me only to you and to your lord to speak these words, and not to the men who are sitting on the wall, who will eat their own excrement and drink their own urine with you?”[c]
13 Then the herald stood up and called out in a loud voice in Hebrew. He said:
Listen to the words of the Great King, the king of Assyria! 14 This is what the king says.
Do not let Hezekiah deceive you! He will not be able to deliver you. 15 Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord, when he says that the Lord will save you, and that 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. Make a peace treaty with me and surrender to me. Each one of you will eat from his own vine, from his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink water from his own cistern, 17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land with grain and sweet wine, a land with bread and vineyards. 18 Do not let Hezekiah make you think that the Lord will deliver you!
Have any of the gods of the nations kept them from being handed over to the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? 20 Which of the gods of these countries have delivered their country from my hand? Will the Lord really deliver Jerusalem from my hand?
21 But the officials remained silent, saying nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.”
22 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was the palace administrator, Shebna, who was the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, who was the recorder, went to Hezekiah with their clothing torn and told him everything the herald had said.
Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah’s Advice
37 When King Hezekiah heard the report, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and went into the House of the Lord. 2 He sent Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, who were wearing sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.
3 They told him what Hezekiah said: “This is a day of distress, rebuke, and humiliation, because children are about to be born, but there is no strength left to give birth. 4 Perhaps the Lord your God will take note of the words of this herald, who was sent by his lord, the king of Assyria, in defiance of the living God, and perhaps the Lord your God will rebuke him for what he has heard. So please, pray for the small group that is left here.”
5 When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, 6 he said to them, “Tell your master that this is what the Lord says. Do not be afraid of what you have heard. The lackeys[d] of the king of Assyria have blasphemed against me. 7 Watch! I will put a spirit in him, so that when he hears certain news, he will return to his own land. There I will cause him to be killed.”
8 Then the herald went back. He heard that the king of Assyria had already left Lachish and was fighting against Libnah.
9 When Sennacherib heard that Tirhakah king of Cush[e] had set out to fight against him, he sent messengers to Hezekiah 10 to say this to Hezekiah king of Judah:
Do not let the God you trust deceive you, saying that Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria. 11 Listen, you yourself have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other lands, destroying them completely. And you expect to be saved? 12 Did the gods of the nations whom my fathers destroyed save them—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden, who were in Tel Assar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the kings of the cities of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?
14 Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. He went up to the House of the Lord and placed it there before the Lord. 15 Then he prayed to the Lord.
16 O Lord of Armies, God of Israel, seated above the cherubim, you alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth. 17 Turn your ear toward me, Lord, and hear. Open your eyes, Lord, and see. Listen to all of the words of Sennacherib, who has defied the living God. 18 It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all these lands and their territory. 19 They have thrown their gods into the fire, for they were not gods at all, but the work of human hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. 20 Now, Lord our God, save us from his power, and let all the kingdoms of the earth know that you are the Lord, and you alone.
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[f] 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.[g]
28 But I know when you stand and when you sit,[h]
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.
The Destruction of Sennacherib
36 Then an angel of the Lord went and struck down one hundred eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. Early in the morning, there they were—all the dead bodies. 37 Then Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and left. He returned to Nineveh and remained there. 38 One day when Sennacherib was worshipping in the house of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer struck him down with the sword. They fled to the land of Ararat,[i] and his son Esarhaddon became king in his place.
Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery
38 In those days Hezekiah became sick and was dying. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “This is what the Lord says. Give instructions to your household, because you are going to die. You will not survive.”
2 So Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord. 3 He said, “Please remember, Lord, how I have walked before you in truth and with my whole heart. I have done what is good in your eyes.” Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4 Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah.
5 Go back and tell Hezekiah that this is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says:
I have heard your prayer and I have seen your tears. Now then, I will add fifteen years to your life. 6 I will rescue you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.
7 This will be the sign from the Lord to you. The Lord will do what he has promised. 8 Watch! I will make the shadow of the setting sun that has moved down the stairway of Ahaz move back, ten steps higher on the staircase.
Then the sun’s shadow moved backwards, ten steps higher on the stairway that it had just descended.
9 A poem written by Hezekiah king of Judah, after his illness and recovery.[j]
10 I thought that, only halfway through my life,
I was entering into the gates of death,[k]
deprived of the remaining years of my life.
11 I thought, I will not see the Lord—
the Lord[l] in the land of the living.
I will no longer see anyone among the inhabitants of the world.[m]
12 My dwelling place is being pulled down.
It is carried away from me like a shepherd’s tent.
I have rolled up my life like a weaver.
He is cutting me off from the loom.
From day until night, you make an end of me.[n]
13 I pondered this until the morning.
He will break all my bones like a lion!
From day until night, you make an end of me.
14 I chirp weakly like a swift or a swallow.
I mourn like a dove.
My eyes are tired from looking upward.
O Lord, I am oppressed.
Be my security.
15 What can I say?
He has spoken to me, and he is the one to act.
I will march slowly throughout all my years,
because my heart is bitter.[o]
16 Lord, people live because you give them life.
My spirit lives through this.[p]
Restore me, and let me live.[q]
17 The bitter things I experienced were for my benefit.
Your love has preserved my life from the pit of destruction,
for you have thrown all my sins behind your back.
18 The grave[r] cannot thank you.
Death cannot praise you.
Those who go down into the pit cannot trust your faithfulness.
19 The living one, the living one, he praises you, as I do today.
A father tells his children about your faithfulness.
20 The Lord will save me,
so we will sing songs with stringed instruments
all the days of our lives in the House of the Lord.
21 Isaiah had said, “Have them take a cake of figs, apply it as a poultice on the inflamed spot, and he will recover.”
22 Hezekiah had also asked, “What will be the sign that I will go up to the House of the Lord?”
Hezekiah Receives Envoys From Babylon
39 At that time, Merodak[s] Baladan, son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, because he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick and had recovered. 2 Hezekiah was happy to receive the envoys, and he showed them his palace treasury—the silver and the gold, the spices and the precious oil, his whole armory, and everything that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his palace or in all his domain that Hezekiah did not show them.
3 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did those men say? Where did they come from?”
Hezekiah replied, “They have come from a faraway country, from Babylon.”
4 The prophet asked, “What did they see in your palace?”
Hezekiah said, “They have seen everything in my palace. There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.”
5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Listen to the word of the Lord of Armies. 6 Listen carefully. The days are coming when whatever is in your house—everything that your fathers have stored up until today—will be carried away to Babylon. Not a thing will be left, says the Lord. 7 They will take away some of the sons who were born to you, your own children, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”
8 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good.” For Hezekiah also said, “There will be peace and stability during my days.”
Overview of the Lord’s Plan
40 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
2 Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and call out to her.
Her warfare[t] really is over.
Her guilt is fully paid for.
Yes, she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
3 A voice is calling out:
In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord.
In the wasteland make a level[u] highway for our God.
4 Every valley will be raised up,
and every mountain and hill will be made low.
The rugged ground will become level,
and the rough places will become a plain.
5 Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all flesh together will see it.
Yes, the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
6 A voice was saying, “Cry out!”
And I said, “What shall I cry out?”
All flesh is grass,
and all its beauty[v] is like a wildflower in the countryside.
7 Grass withers, flowers fade,
when the breath[w] of the Lord blows on them.
Yes, the people are grass.
8 Grass withers, flowers fade,
but the Word of our God endures forever.
9 Get up on a high mountain,
O Zion, you herald of good news.
Lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, you herald of good news.
Lift it up! Do not be afraid!
Say to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
10 Look, God the Lord will come with strength,
and his arm is ruling for him.
Look, his reward is with him.
The result of his work is in front of him.
11 Like a shepherd he will care for his flock.
With his arm he will gather the lambs.
He will lift them up on his lap.
He will gently lead the nursing mothers.
The Lord Is Beyond Compare
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand?
Who marked off the heavens with the width of his hand?
Who scooped up the dust of the earth with a measuring cup?
Who weighed the mountains with a balance
and the hills with scales?
13 Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord?
Who can teach him anything or serve as his advisor?
14 Who was his advisor to give him insight?
Who taught him the path of justice?
Who taught him knowledge?
Who showed him the way to complete understanding?
15 Indeed, nations are like a drop in a bucket,
and they are treated like powder on a scale.
Look, he lifts up islands like dust!
16 Not even the forests of Lebanon could provide enough wood to burn,
and its animals are not enough for a whole burnt offering.
17 All the nations are nothing to him.
By him they are regarded as worthless,
as less than nothing.
18 So to whom will you compare God?
What image can you compare to him?
19 A craftsman casts the idol,
and a goldsmith overlays it with gold.
He forges silver chains for it.
20 He chooses mulberry wood as an offering,[x]
wood that will not rot.
He looks for a skillful craftsman
to erect an idol that will not fall over.
21 Do you not know? Have you not heard?
Has it not been declared to you from the beginning?
Have you not understood it from the founding of the earth?
22 He is the one who sits above the circle of the earth.
To him its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and he spreads them out like a tent to live in.
23 He is the one who reduces dignitaries to nothing.
He makes the judges of the world useless.
24 They have hardly been planted.
They have hardly been sown.
Their stem has hardly taken root in the earth.
Then he blows on them, and they dry up.
A driving storm carries them away like chaff.
25 To whom can you compare me as if we were equals?
says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
and see who created these things.
See who brings out their army in great number
and calls them all by name.
Because of his great strength and mighty power,
not one of them is missing.
27 Why do you speak, O Jacob?
O Israel, why do you say,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and justice for me is ignored by my God”?
28 Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the eternal God.
He is the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired, and he will not become weary.
No one can find a limit to his understanding.
29 He is the one who gives strength to the weak,
and he increases the strength of those who lack power.
30 Young men grow tired and become weary.
Even strong men stumble and fall.
31 But those who wait for the Lord will receive new strength.
They will lift up their wings and soar like eagles.
They will run and not become weary.
They will walk and not become tired.
A Summons to Judgment
41
Prepare to present your case to me,[y] you coastlands,
and let the peoples renew their strength.
Let them come near. Yes, let them say,
“We will gather together for the verdict.”
A Mystery Man Is Summoned From the East
2 Who has aroused this one from the east?
In righteousness he summons him to his feet.
He gives nations to him
and causes him to rule over kings.
He makes them like dust with his sword,
like wind-driven stubble with his bow.
3 He pursues them and passes by safely.
His feet do not touch the ground.[z]
4 Who accomplished this and carried it out
by summoning generations from the beginning?
The Lord Controls History
I, the Lord, am the first,
and at the very end I will still be the one.
5 The coastlands see and fear.
The ends of the earth tremble.
They draw near. They come.
The Idol Makers Appear
6 Each one assists his neighbor,
and to his brother he says, “Be strong.”
7 The craftsman strengthens the refiner.
The one who flattens with the hammer
strengthens the one who strikes the anvil.
Concerning the soldering he says, “It is good.”
He fastens it with nails so that it cannot be moved.
The Lord Is Your Defender
8 But you, O Israel, my servant,
O Jacob, whom I have chosen,
the offspring[aa] of Abraham, whom I love,
9 whom I have snatched from the ends of the earth,
whom I have called from its corners—
I have said to you, “You are my servant.”
I have chosen you and not rejected you.
10 Do not fear, for I am with you.
Do not be overwhelmed,[ab] for I am your God.
I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you.
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
11 Just watch, they will be ashamed and humiliated—
all those who are angry with you.
They will become nothing and perish—
those men who oppose you.
12 You will look for them, but you will not find them—
those men who contend against you.
They will become absolutely nothing, less than nothing—
those men who battle against you.
13 For I am the Lord your God.
I am the one who is holding on to your right hand.
I am the one who says to you, “Do not fear. I myself am helping you.”
14 Do not fear, you worm, Jacob, you few men of Israel.[ac]
I myself am helping you, declares the Lord,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
15 Look, I am making you into a sharp, new threshing sledge
with double-edged blades.
You will thresh mountains and crush them.
You will turn hills into chaff.
16 You will winnow them,
and a wind will lift them up.
A strong wind will scatter them.
But you, you will rejoice in the Lord.
In the Holy One of Israel you will be confident.
17 The afflicted and the poor seek water, but there is none.
Their tongues are parched with thirst.
I, the Lord, I myself will answer them.
I, the God of Israel, will not leave them.
18 I will open rivers on the barren heights.
In the middle of valleys there will be springs.
I will turn the wilderness into a pool of water,
and the dry land will pour out water.
19 In the wilderness I will place cedar, acacia, myrtle, and olive trees.
In the wasteland I will plant fir, maple, and pines together,
20 so that they may see and know,
and pay attention and perceive this all together,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
and the Holy One of Israel has created it.
The Idols Are Placed on Trial
21 “Present your case,” says the Lord.
“Set forth your strongest points,” says the King of Jacob.
22 Let them present and declare to us what is going to occur.
What were the first things you predicted?
Tell us, so that we can ponder them,
so that we can know their outcome.
Or, announce to us the coming things.
23 Declare to us the things that are still coming in the distant future.
Then we will know that you are gods.
In fact, just do something, do anything—good or evil,
so that we may be overwhelmed and terrified together.
24 Look, you are less than nothing,
and your work is less than zero.
Anyone who chooses you is detestable.
The Man From the North
25 I have stirred up someone from the north,
and he is coming from the rising of the sun.
He will call upon my name.
He will walk over rulers as if they were mud,
the way a potter tramples clay.
26 Who declared this from the beginning so that we could know it,
and ahead of time so that we could say, “He is right”?
In fact, not one of them declares this.
In fact, not one of them makes this known.
In fact, no one hears you say anything.
27 I was first to announce to Zion, “Look, here they are,”
and I sent a herald of good news to Jerusalem.
28 When I looked, there was no one.
None of them could give advice,
even when I kept asking them to respond.
29 Look, all of them are useless.
Their works are nothing.
Their images are empty wind.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.