Beginning

36 ¶ Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the defenced cities of Judah and took them.

² And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem unto king Hezekiah with a great army. And he camped by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the washer’s field.

³ Then came forth unto him Eliakim, Hilkiah’s son, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, Asaph’s son, the writer of chronicles.

⁴ And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this in which thou dost trust?

⁵ I say, sayest thou, (but they are but vain words) I have counsel and strength for war: now on whom dost thou trust that thou dost rebel against me?

⁶ Behold, thou dost trust in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt upon which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it, so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust in him.

⁷ But if thou say to me, We trust in the LORD our God; is it not he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and to Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar?

⁸ Now therefore give pledges, I pray thee, to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give thee two thousand horses, if thou art able on thy part to set riders upon them.

⁹ How, therefore, wilt thou turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master’s slaves even if thou art trusting in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

¹⁰ And peradventure am I now come up without the LORD against this land to destroy it? The LORD said unto me, Go up against this land and destroy it.

¹¹ ¶ Then said Eliakim and Shebna and Joah unto Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray thee, unto thy slaves in the Syrian language, for we understand it, and do not speak to us in the Jewish language, in the ears of the people that are on the wall.

¹² But Rabshakeh said, Has my master sent me to thy master and to thee to speak these words? Has he not sent me to the men that sit upon the wall that they may eat their own dung and drink their own piss with you?

¹³ Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jewish language and said, Hear ye the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.

¹⁴ Thus saith the king, Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you.

¹⁵ Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, The LORD will surely deliver us, this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.

¹⁶ Do not hearken unto Hezekiah, for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make peace with me and come out to me and eat each one of his vine and each one of his fig tree and drink each one the waters of his own cistern

¹⁷ until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

¹⁸ Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, The LORD will deliver us. Have any of the gods of the Gentiles delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

¹⁹ Where is the god of Hamath and Arphad? Where is the god of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

²⁰ What god is there among all the gods of these lands that have delivered their land out of my hand that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?

²¹ But they held their peace and did not answer him a word, for the king had commanded thus, saying, Answer him not.

²² Then came Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, that was over the household, and Shebna the scribe and Joah, the son of Asaph, the writer of chronicles, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

37 ¶ And it came to pass when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the LORD.

² And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth unto Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.

³ And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble and of rebuke and of blasphemy, for the sons are come to the breaking of the water, and there is no strength in her who is to bring them forth.

⁴ It may be the LORD thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to blaspheme the living God and to reprove with the words which the LORD thy God has heard; therefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is still left.

⁵ So the slaves of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

⁶ And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say unto your master, Thus saith the LORD, Do not be afraid of the words that thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

⁷ Behold, that I am sending a spirit in him, and he shall hear a rumour 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 warring against Libnah, for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.

⁹ And he heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He is come forth to make war with thee. And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

¹⁰ Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Do not let thy God, in whom thou dost trust, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.

¹¹ Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by destroying them utterly, and shalt thou be delivered?

¹² Have the gods of the Gentiles delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the sons of Eden which were in Telassar?

¹³ Where is the king of Hamath and the king of Arphad and the king of the city of Sepharvaim Hena, and Ivah?

¹⁴ And Hezekiah took the letters from the hand of the messengers and read them; and Hezekiah went up unto the house of the LORD and spread them before the LORD.

¹⁵ And Hezekiah prayed unto the LORD, saying,

¹⁶ O LORD of the hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubim, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made the heavens and earth.

¹⁷ Incline thine ear, O LORD, and hear; open thine eyes, O LORD, and see and hear all the words of Sennacherib, who has sent his messengers to blaspheme the living God.

¹⁸ Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their countries

¹⁹ and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone; therefore they have destroyed them.

²⁰ Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD, even thou only.

²¹ ¶ Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent unto Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria:

²² This is the word which the LORD has spoken concerning him, Has he despised thee? Has he laughed thee to scorn O virgin daughter of Zion? Has he shaken his head behind thy back O daughter of Jerusalem?

²³ Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.

²⁴ By the hand of thy slaves thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, By the multitude of my chariots I shall come up to the height of the mountains to the sides of Lebanon, and I will cut down the tall cedars thereof and the choice fir trees thereof; and I will enter into the height of his border and the forest of his Carmel.

²⁵ I have dug and drunk water; and with the sole of my feet shall I dry up all the rivers of sustenance.

²⁶ Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it and of ancient times that I have formed it? Now I have brought it to pass, that thou should be to lay waste defenced cities into ruinous heaps.

²⁷ And their inhabitants, of little strength, dismayed and confounded shall be as the grass of the field and as the green shrub as the grass on the housetops, that before it comes to maturity it is dried up.

²⁸ I have understood thy state, thy going out and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.

²⁹ Because thy rage against me, and thy tumult, is come up into my ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou didst come.

³⁰ And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such as grows of itself; and the second year that which springs of the same: and in the third year ye shall sow and shall reap and shall plant vineyards and shall eat the fruit thereof.

³¹ And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward:

³² For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant and from Mount Zion shall come an escape; the zeal of the LORD of the hosts shall do this.

³³ Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it.

³⁴ By the way that he came, by the same shall he return and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD.

³⁵ For I will defend this city to save it for my own sake and for my slave David’s sake.

³⁶ Then the angel of the LORD went forth and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

³⁷ So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went and returned and dwelt at Nineveh.

³⁸ And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

38 ¶ In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz came unto him and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live.

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

³ And said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.

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

⁵ Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer; I have seen thy tears behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.

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

⁷ And this shall be a sign unto thee from the LORD that the LORD will do this thing that he has spoken:

⁸ Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.

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

¹⁰ I said in the cutting off of my days; I shall go to the gates of Sheol: I am deprived of the residue of my years.

¹¹ I said, I shall not see JAH, even JAH, in the land of the living; I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.

¹² My dwelling place has been moved and is removed from me as a shepherd’s tent; he has cut off my life like a weaver: he has cut me off with sickness: between the day and the night thou shalt consume me.

¹³ I reckoned that I had until morning. As a lion, he broke all my bones: from the morning even unto the night thou shalt make an end of me.

¹⁴ Like a crane or a swallow, so did I complain; I mourned as a dove; I raised my eyes upward, O LORD, I am suffering violence; comfort me.

¹⁵ What shall I say? He has both spoken unto me, and he himself has done it; I shall walk softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul.

¹⁶ O Lord, even unto all those that shall live, in these fifteen years I shall proclaim the life of my spirit in them and how thou caused me to sleep, and afterwards hast given me life.

¹⁷ Behold, for peace I had great bitterness; but it has pleased thee to deliver my life from the pit of corruption, for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.

¹⁸ For the grave shall not confess thee, nor shall death praise thee; nor shall those that go down into the pit wait for thy truth.

¹⁹ He who lives, he who lives, even he shall confess thee, as I do this day; the father to the sons shall make known thy truth.

²⁰ The LORD is ready to save me: therefore we will sing our psalms in the house of the LORD all the days of our life.

²¹ Isaiah then said, Let them take a lump of figs and lay it for a plaster upon the boil and he shall be healed.

²² And Hezekiah had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?

39 ¶ At that time Merodachbaladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and presents to Hezekiah, for he had heard that he had been sick and was recovered.

² And Hezekiah rejoiced with them and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver and the gold and the spices and the precious ointments and all the house of his weapons and all that was found in his treasures; there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.

³ Then Isaiah the prophet came unto king Hezekiah and said unto him, What did these men say? and from where did they come unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country unto me, even from Babylon.

⁴ Then said he, What have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All that is in my house have they seen; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not showed them.

⁵ ¶ Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD of the hosts:

⁶ Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the LORD.

⁷ And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.

⁸ Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, Good is the word of the LORD which thou hast spoken. He said moreover, At least there shall be peace and truth in my days.

40 ¶ Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.

² Speak ye according to the heart of Jerusalem and cry unto her that her time is now fulfilled that her iniquity is pardoned; for she has received of the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.

³ ¶ The voice of him that cries in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

⁴ Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places made plain:

⁵ And the glory of the LORD shall be manifested, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.

⁶ The voice that said, Cry. And I said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the mercy thereof is as the open flower of the field:

⁷ The grass withers, the flower fades because the spirit of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people is grass.

⁸ The grass withers, the open flower fades; but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

⁹ ¶ O Zion, that brings good tidings, go up into the high mountain; lift up thy voice with strength O bearer of good tidings of Jerusalem; lift it up, do not be afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!

¹⁰ Behold, the Lord GOD will come with a strong hand, 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 gently lead those that are with young.

¹² ¶ Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and prepared the heavens with his palm and with three fingers measured the dust of the earth and weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills with weights?

¹³ Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD or being his counsellor has taught him?

¹⁴ With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him? Who taught him in the path of judgment and taught him knowledge and showed unto him the way of intelligence?

¹⁵ Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he causes the isles to disappear as dust.

¹⁶ And all Lebanon is not sufficient for the fire, nor all the beasts thereof sufficient for the sacrifice.

¹⁷ All the Gentiles are as nothing before him, and they are counted to him as vanity and as less than nothing.

¹⁸ ¶ To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?

¹⁹ The workman prepares the graven image, and the goldsmith spreads it over with gold and casts silver chains.

²⁰ He that is so impoverished that he has no oblation chooses a tree that will not rot; he seeks unto himself a cunning workman to prepare a graven image that shall not be moved.

²¹ Have ye not known? Have ye not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have ye not been taught since the land was founded?

²² He is seated upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; he stretches out the heavens as a curtain and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in:

²³ He brings the powerful to nothing; he makes the judges of the earth as if they had never been,

²⁴ As if they had never been planted, as if they had never been sown, as if their stock had never taken root in the earth; even blowing upon them, they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble.

²⁵ To whom then will ye liken me, or what shall ye compare me to? saith the Holy One.

²⁶ Lift up your eyes on high and behold who has created these things; he brings out his host by number; he calls them all by their names; none shall be lacking by the greatness of his might and by the strength of his power.

²⁷ ¶ Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest thou, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God?

²⁸ Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard that the God of the age is the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth? He does not faint, nor is he weary; and there is no one that can attain to his intelligence.

²⁹ He gives power to the faint; and to those that have no might he increases strength.

³⁰ The young men faint and are weary; the children stumble and fall;

³¹ but those that wait for the LORD shall have new strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

41 ¶ Listen unto me, O islands; and let the peoples strengthen themselves; let them come near; then let them speak; let us come near together to judgment.

² Who raised up righteousness from the east, called him that he might follow him, gave the Gentiles before him, and made him rule over kings? He gave them as the dust to his sword and as driven stubble to his bow.

³ He pursued them and passed in peace by the way that his feet had never entered.

⁴ Who has wrought and done it? Who calls the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and I, myself am with those who are last.

⁵ The isles saw it and feared; the ends of the earth were afraid; they congregated and came.

⁶ Each one helped his neighbour; and each one said to his brother, Be of good courage.

⁷ So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smooths with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is well joined and he strengthened it with nails, that it should not be moved.

⁸ But thou, Israel, my slave, Jacob whom I have chosen, art the seed of Abraham my friend.

⁹ For I have taken thee from the ends of the earth and called thee from the boundaries thereof and said unto thee Thou shalt be my slave; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.

¹⁰ ¶ Do not fear for I am with thee; do not be dismayed, for I am thy God, who strengthens thee; I will help thee always; I will always uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

¹¹ Behold, all those that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded; they shall be as nothing; and those that strive with thee shall perish.

¹² Thou shalt seek them and shalt not find them, even those that contended with thee; those that war against thee shall be as nothing and as a thing of nought.

¹³ For I am the LORD thy God that holds thy right hand saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.

¹⁴ Fear not, thou worm Jacob, ye dead of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵ Behold, I have placed thee as a threshing instrument, as a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth; thou shalt thresh the mountains and beat them small and shalt make the hills as chaff.

¹⁶ Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them; but thou shalt rejoice in the LORD, thou shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁷ The poor and needy seek the waters that are not; 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 in high places and fountains in the midst of the plains; I will turn the wilderness into pools of water and the dry land into springs of water.

¹⁹ I will bring forth in the wilderness cedars, thorns, myrtles, and olive trees; I will set in the desert the fir tree and the pine and the box tree together:

²⁰ That they may see and know and take warning and understand together that the hand of the LORD does this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it.

²¹ ¶ Explain your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your foundations, saith the King of Jacob.

²² Let them bring forth and declare unto us what shall happen; tell us what has happened from the beginning, and we shall consider it in our hearts; and we shall know what his end shall be, and cause us to understand that which is to come.

²³ Give us news of that which is to come hereafter that we may know that ye are gods; or at least do good or do evil that we may have something to tell, and together we shall marvel.

²⁴ Behold, ye are of nothing and your works of vanity; an abomination is he that chooses you.

²⁵ I have raised up one from the north, and he came from the rising of the sun; he called in my name and came unto princes as upon clay and as the potter treads clay.

²⁶ Who has declared from the beginning, that we shall know? and beforetime that we shall say, He is righteous? yea, there is no one that declares this, yea, there is no one that teaches, yea, there is no one that hears your words.

²⁷ I am the first that has taught these things unto Zion, and unto Jerusalem I brought the news.

²⁸ For I beheld, and there was no one; and I asked regarding these things, and there was no counsellor; I asked them, and they did not answer a word.

²⁹ Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion.