Bible in 90 Days
Ariel besieged but spared
29 Oh, Ariel, Ariel,
town where David encamped!
Year by year, let the festivals come around—
2 but I will oppress Ariel.
There will be mourning and lamentation;
she will be like an Ariel to me.
3 I will surround you like a wall,
and I will lay a siege against you with assault towers,
and I will raise up siegeworks against you.
4 You will be brought down;
from the ground you will speak;
from low in the dust your speech will come.
Your voice will be like a ghost’s from the earth;
from the dust your words will whisper.
5 But your many enemies will be like fine dust,
the terrible horde like passing chaff.
Suddenly, in an instant, 6 the Lord of heavenly forces will come to you with thunder, earthquake, and a mighty voice,
with whirlwind, tempest, and flames of devouring fire.
7 The horde of nations fighting against Ariel,
and all who make war on her and her fortress and besiege her,
will be like a dream, a vision of the night.
8 It will be like when a hungry person dreams of eating
but wakes up and the mouth is empty.
Or when a thirsty person dreams of drinking
but wakes up and has a dry throat.
So will it be for all the horde of nations
who fight against Mount Zion.
9 Be shocked and stunned;
blind yourselves; be blind!
Be drunk, but not on wine;
stagger, but not on account of beer!
10 The Lord has poured on you a spirit of deep sleep,
and has shut your eyes, you prophets,
and covered your heads, you seers.
11 This entire vision has become for you like the words of a sealed scroll. When they give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” that one will say, “I can’t, because it’s sealed.” 12 And when the scroll is given to one who can’t read, saying, “Read this,” that one will say, “I can’t read.”
The wisdom of their wise
13 The Lord says:
Since these people turn toward me with their mouths,
and honor me with lip service
while their heart is distant from me,
and their fear of me is just a human command that has been memorized,
14 I will go on doing amazing things to these people,
shocking and startling things.
The wisdom of their wise will perish,
and the discernment of their discerning will be hidden.
15 Doom to those who hide their plan deep, away from the Lord,
whose deeds are in the dark,
who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”
16 You have everything backward!
Should the potter be thought of as clay?
Should what is made say of its maker,
“He didn’t make me”?
Should what is shaped say of the one who shaped it,
“He doesn’t understand”?
17 In just a little while won’t Lebanon become farmland once again,
and the farmland be considered a forest?
18 On that day: The deaf will hear the words of a scroll and, freed from dimness and darkness, the eyes of the blind will see.
19 The poor will again find joy in the Lord,
and the neediest of people will rejoice in the holy one of Israel.
20 The tyrant will be no more,
the mocker will perish,
and all who plot evil will be eliminated:
21 all who incriminate others wrongly,
who entrap the judge in the gate,
and pointlessly postpone justice for the innocent.
22 Therefore, proclaims the Lord,
the God of[a] the house of Jacob,
who redeemed Abraham:
Jacob won’t be ashamed now,
and his face won’t grow pale now.
23 When he sees his children among them,
the work of my hands,
proclaiming my name holy,
they will make holy the holy one of Jacob,
and stand in awe of Israel’s God.
24 Those who wander in spirit will have understanding,
and those who grumble will gain insight.
Help from Egypt is futile
30 Doom to you, rebellious children, says the Lord,
who make a plan, which is not mine;
who weave a plot,[b] but not by my spirit,
piling up sin on sin;
2 setting out to go down to Egypt without consulting me,
taking refuge in Pharaoh’s refuge and hiding in Egypt’s shadow.
3 Pharaoh’s refuge will become your shame,
hiding in Egypt’s shadow your disgrace.
4 Though their officials are in Zoan,
and their messengers reach Hanes,
5 all will become shamed because of a people who can’t assist them.
They are no help; they are no profit;
rather, shame and disgrace.
6 An oracle about the beasts in the arid southern plain.
Through a land of distress and danger,
lioness and roaring[c] lion, viper and flying serpent,
they will carry their wealth on donkeys’ shoulders
and their treasures on camels’ humps to a people who won’t profit,
7 for Egypt’s help is utterly worthless.
Therefore, I call her Rahab Who Sits Still.[d]
8 Now go, write it before them on a tablet,
inscribe it on a scroll,
so in the future it will endure as a witness.
9 These are rebellious people, lying children,
children unwilling to hear the Lord’s teaching,
10 who say to the seers, “Don’t foresee,”
and to the visionaries, “Don’t report truthful visions;
tell us flattering things;
envision deceptions;
11 get out of the way;
step off the path;
let’s have no more ‘holy one of Israel.’”
12 Therefore, the holy one of Israel says:
Because you reject this word
and trust in oppression and cunning and rely on them,
13 your sin will be like a crack in a high wall; it bulges, about to fall:
suddenly, in an instant, it breaks!
14 Its breaking is like the breaking of a storage jar
that is totally shattered.
No piece from among its fragments will be large enough to take fire from a hearth,
or to dip water from a cistern.
15 Therefore, the Lord God,
the holy one of Israel, says:
In return and rest you will be saved;
quietness and trust will be your strength—
but you refused.
16 You said,
“No! We’ll flee on horses”—
therefore, you will indeed flee—
“and we’ll ride off; on swift steeds we will ride”—
therefore, your pursuers will be swift.
17 One thousand will flee at the threat of one,
and at the threat of five you will flee,
until you are left like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,
like a flag on a hill.
18 Nonetheless, the Lord is waiting to be merciful to you,
and will rise up to show you compassion.
The Lord is a God of justice;
happy are all who wait for him.
This is the way
19 People in Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. God will certainly be merciful to you. Hearing the sound of your outcry, God will answer you. 20 Though the Lord gives you the bread of distress and the water of oppression, your teacher will no longer hide, but you will see your teacher. 21 If you stray to the right or the left, you will hear a word that comes from behind you: “This is the way; walk in it.” 22 You will defile your silver-plated idols and your gold-covered priestly vest,[e] and you will scatter them like menstrual rags. “Get out,” you will say to them.
23 God will provide rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food the ground produces will be rich and abundant. On that day, your cattle will graze in large pastures. 24 The oxen and donkeys that are working the ground will eat tasty feed spread for them with shovel and fork.
25 On every lofty mountain, and on every high hill, streams will run with water on the day of the great massacre, when the towers fall. 26 The light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter—like the light of seven days—on the day that the Lord bandages the people’s brokenness and heals the wounds inflicted by his blows.
Assyria punished
27 Look there! The Lord is coming from far away;
his anger blazing, his smoke-cloud thick.
His lips are full of fury;
his tongue is like a devouring fire.
28 His breath is like a raging river that reaches up to the neck,
to shake the nations with a sieve of destruction,
and to put a misleading rein on the people’s jaws.
29 There will be singing for you
as on the night that people celebrate a festival.
The heart will be joyful as it is when one goes with a flute
to the Lord’s mountain,
to the rock of Israel.
30 The Lord will unleash his majestic voice
and display his crushing arm
in furious anger, with a flame of consuming fire,
in stormy rain and hail.
31 The Lord’s voice will terrify Assyria;
with a rod he will smite it.
32 And every crack that is made in the foundation wall,
which the Lord will bring down upon him,
will be accompanied by timbrels and lyres.
The Lord will raise his arm and fight against Assyria in battle. 33 His place for burning[f] was arranged long ago;
it is indeed made ready for a king.
God has made its wood pile wide and deep,
fire and wood in abundance.
The breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, ignites it.
Doom to those going to Egypt
31 Doom to those going down to Egypt for help!
They rely on horses,
trust in chariots because they are many,
and on riders because they are very strong.
But they don’t look to the holy one of Israel;
they don’t seek the Lord.
2 But God also knows how to bring disaster;
he has not taken back his words.
God will rise up against the house of evildoers
and against the help of those who do wrong.
3 Egypt is human and not divine;
their horses are flesh and not spirit.
The Lord will extend his hand;
the helper will stumble,
those helped will fall,
and they will all die together.
4 The Lord has said to me:
When the lion growls,
the young lion, over its prey,
though a band of shepherds is summoned against it,
isn’t scared off by their noise
or frightened by their roar.
So the Lord of heavenly forces will go down
to fight on Mount Zion and on her hill.
5 Like birds flying aloft,
so the Lord of heavenly forces will shield Jerusalem:
shielding and saving, sparing and rescuing.
6 People of Israel, return to the one whom you have deeply betrayed! 7 On that day, you will each reject the idols of silver and the idols of gold, which you have sinfully made for yourselves.
8 Assyria will fall, but not by a human sword—
a sword not made by humans will devour them.
They will flee before the sword;
their young men will become forced laborers.
9 In horror they will flee from their stronghold;
their officers will be terrified at the signal,
says the Lord, whose fire is in Zion
and whose oven is in Jerusalem.
Righteous rule
32 See here: A king rules to promote righteousness;
rulers govern to promote justice,
2 each like a shelter from the wind
and a refuge from a storm,
like streams of water in a wasteland,
like the shade of a massive cliff in a worn-out land.
3 Then the eyes of those who can see will no longer be blind,
the ears of those who can hear will listen,
4 the minds of the rash will know and comprehend,
and the tongues of those who stammer will speak fluently and plainly.
5 Then a fool will no longer be called honorable,
nor a villain considered respectable.
6 Fools speak folly;
their minds devise wickedness,
acting irreverently,
speaking falsely of the Lord,
leaving the hungry empty,
and depriving the thirsty of drink.
7 As for the villain, his villainies are evil.
He plans schemes to destroy the poor with lying words,
even when the needy speak justly.
8 But an honorable person plans honorable things
and stands up for what is honorable.
Warnings to the carefree
9 Women of leisure, stand up! Hear my voice!
Carefree daughters, listen to my word!
10 In a little over a year,
the carefree will shudder,
because the grape harvest will fail;
the vintage won’t arrive.
11 Tremble, all of you who are at ease;
shudder, all of you who are secure!
Strip yourselves, bare your skin,
and tie mourning clothes around your waist,
12 beating your breasts for the pleasant fields,
for the fruitful vine,
13 for my people’s soil
growing barbs and thorns,
for all the joyous houses
in the jubilant town.
14 The palace will be deserted,
the crowded city abandoned.
Stronghold and watchtower
will become empty fields forever,
suited for the pleasure of wild donkeys,
and a pasture for flocks—
15 until a spirit from on high
is poured out on us,
and the desert turns into farmland, and the farmland is considered a forest.
16 Then justice will reside in wild lands,
and righteousness will abide in farmlands.
17 The fruit of righteousness will be peace,
and the outcome of righteousness,
calm and security forever.
18 Then my people will live in a peaceful dwelling,
in secure homes, in carefree resting places.
19 Even if the forest falls[g]
and the humbled city is laid low,
20 those who sow beside any stream will be happy,
sending out ox and donkey to graze.
Judgment and hope for the righteous
33 Doom to the destroyer left undestroyed,
you traitor whom none have betrayed:
when you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed;
and when you have stopped betraying, they will betray you.
2 Lord, show us favor;
we hope in you.
Be our strength every morning,
our salvation in times of distress.
3 At the noise, peoples fled;
on account of your roar, nations scattered.
4 They gathered spoil like insects;
they rushed upon it like a swarm of locusts.[h]
5 The Lord is exalted; he lives on high,
filling Zion with justice and righteousness.
6 He will provide security during a lifetime:[i]
a source of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge—
fear of the Lord will be Zion’s treasure.[j]
7 But then those in Ariel[k] cried out in the streets;
messengers of peace wept bitterly.
8 The highways were deserted;
travelers left the road.
The covenant was broken;
solemn pledges[l] were rejected;
no one cared for humanity.
9 The land mourned; it wasted away;
Lebanon was ashamed; it withered.
Sharon became like the desert,
and Bashan and Carmel were dropping their leaves.
10 Now I will arise, says the Lord.
Now I will exalt myself; now I will stand tall.
11 You conceive straw, give birth to stubble;
your breath is a fire that devours you.
12 Peoples will be burned to lime,
thorns cut up and set ablaze.
13 You who are far away, hear what I have done;
and you who are near, know my strength!
14 Sinners became terrified in Zion;
trembling seized the godless:
“Who among us can live with the devouring fire?
Who among us can live with the everlasting blaze?”
15 The one who walks righteously and speaks truthfully,
who rejects profit from extortion,
who waves away a bribe instead of grabbing it,
who won’t listen to bloody plots,
and who won’t contemplate doing something evil.
16 He will live on the heights;
fortresses in the cliffs will be his refuge.
His food will be provided,
his water guaranteed.
17 When you gaze upon a king in his glamour
and look at the surrounding land,
18 in dismay you will think:
Where is the one who counts?
Where is the one who weighs?
Where is the one who counts towers?
19 You will no longer see the defiant people,
the people of speech too obscure to understand,
who stammer in an incomprehensible language.
20 Gaze upon Zion, our festival town.
Your eyes will see Jerusalem,
a carefree dwelling,
a tent that is not packed up,
whose stakes are never pulled up,
whose ropes won’t snap.
21 The Lord’s majesty will be there for us:
as a place of rivers, broad streams
where no boat will go,
no majestic ship will cross.
22 The Lord is our judge;
the Lord is our leader;
the Lord is our king—
he will deliver us.
23 Your ropes are loosened;
they can’t hold the mast firmly;
they can’t spread the sail.
Then abundant spoil will be divided;
even the lame will seize spoil.
24 And no inhabitant will say, “I’m sick.”
The people living there will be forgiven their sin.
Vengeance against Edom
34 Draw near, you nations, to hear;
and listen, you peoples.
Hear, earth and all who fill it,
world and all its offspring.
2 The Lord rages against all the nations,
and is angry with all their armies.
God is about to wipe them out
and has prepared them for slaughter.
3 Their dead will be cast out,
the stench of their corpses will rise,
and the mountains will melt from their blood.
4 All the stars of heaven will dissolve,
the skies will roll up like a scroll,
and all the stars will fall,
like a leaf withering from a vine,
like fruit from a fig tree.
5 When my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens,
it will descend upon Edom for judgment,
upon a people I have doomed for destruction.
6 The Lord has a sword covered with blood;
it is soaked with fat
from the blood of lambs and goats,
from the kidney fat of rams,
for the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 Wild oxen will fall with them,
steers with mighty bulls,
and their land will be drenched with blood;
its soil soaked with fat.
8 The Lord has a day of vengeance,
a year of payback for Zion’s cause.
9 Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch,
its dust into sulfur,
and its land will become burning pitch.
10 Night and day won’t be extinguished;
its smoke will go up forever.
From generation to generation it will lie waste;
no one will ever pass through it again.
11 Screech owls and crows will possess it;
owls and ravens will live there.[m]
God will stretch over it the measuring line of chaos
and the plummet stone of emptiness over its officials.
12 No Kingdom There, they will call it,
and all its princes will disappear.
13 Thorns will grow up in its palaces,
weeds and brambles in its fortresses.
It will be a dwelling for jackals,
a home for ostriches.
14 Wildcats will meet hyenas,
the goat demon will call to his friends,
and there Lilith[n] will lurk
and find her resting place.
15 There the snake will nest and lay eggs
and brood and hatch in its shadow.
There too vultures will gather,
each with its mate.[o]
16 Consult the Lord’s scroll and read:
Not one of these will be missing;
none will lack its mate.
God’s own mouth has commanded;
God’s own spirit has gathered them.
17 God has cast the lot for them;
God’s hand allotted it to them with the measuring line.
They will possess it forever;
they will live in it from generation to generation.
Fertile wilderness
35 The desert and the dry land will be glad;
the wilderness will rejoice and blossom like the crocus.
2 They will burst into bloom,
and rejoice with joy and singing.
They will receive the glory of Lebanon,
the splendor of Carmel and Sharon.
They will see the Lord’s glory,
the splendor of our God.
3 Strengthen the weak hands,
and support the unsteady knees.
4 Say to those who are panicking:
“Be strong! Don’t fear!
Here’s your God,
coming with vengeance;
with divine retribution
God will come to save you.”
5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened,
and the ears of the deaf will be cleared.
6 Then the lame will leap like the deer,
and the tongue of the speechless will sing.
Waters will spring up in the desert,
and streams in the wilderness.
7 The burning sand will become a pool,
and the thirsty ground, fountains of water.
The jackals’ habitat, a pasture;[p]
grass will become reeds and rushes.
8 A highway will be there.
It will be called The Holy Way.
The unclean won’t travel on it,
but it will be for those walking on that way.[q]
Even fools won’t get lost on it;
9 no lion will be there,
and no predator will go up on it.
None of these will be there;
only the redeemed will walk on it.
10 The Lord’s ransomed ones will return and enter Zion with singing,
with everlasting joy upon their heads.
Happiness and joy will overwhelm them;
grief and groaning will flee away.
Sennacherib’s message
36 Assyria’s King Sennacherib marched against all of Judah’s fortified cities and captured them in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah. 2 Assyria’s king sent his field commander from Lachish, together with a large army, to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. He stood at the water channel of the Upper Pool, which is on the road to the field where clothes are washed. 3 Hilkiah’s son Eliakim, who was the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Asaph’s son Joah the recorder went out to them.
4 Then the field commander said to them, “Say to Hezekiah: Assyria’s Great King says this: Why do you feel so confident? 5 Do you think that empty words are the same as good strategy and the strength to fight? Who are you trusting that you now rebel against me? 6 It appears that you are trusting in a staff—Egypt—that’s nothing but a broken reed! It will stab the hand of anyone who leans on it! That’s all that Pharaoh, Egypt’s king, is to anyone who trusts in him. 7 Now suppose you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God.’ Isn’t he the one whose shrines and altars Hezekiah removed, telling Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship only at this altar’?
8 “So now, make a wager with my master, Assyria’s king. I’ll give you two thousand horses if you can supply the riders! 9 How will you drive back even the least important official among my master’s servants when you are relying on Egypt for chariots and riders? 10 What’s more, do you think I’ve marched against this place to destroy it without the Lord’s support? It was the Lord who told me, ‘March against this land and destroy it!’”
11 Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the field commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, because we understand it. Don’t speak with us in Hebrew,[r] because the people on the wall will hear it.”
12 The field commander said to them, “Did my master send me to speak these words just to you and your master and not also to the men on the wall? They are the ones who will have to eat their dung and drink their urine along with you.” 13 Then the field commander stood up and shouted in Hebrew at the top of his voice: “Listen to the message of the great king, Assyria’s king. 14 The king says this: Don’t let Hezekiah lie to you. He won’t be able to rescue you. 15 Don’t let Hezekiah persuade you to trust the Lord by saying, ‘The Lord will certainly rescue us. This city won’t be handed over to Assyria’s king.’
16 “Don’t listen to Hezekiah, because this is what Assyria’s king says: Surrender to me and come out. Then each of you will eat from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your own well 17 until I come to take you to a land just like your land. It will be a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18 Don’t let Hezekiah fool you by saying, ‘The Lord will rescue us.’ Did any of the other gods of the nations save their lands from the power of Assyria’s king? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Did they rescue Samaria from my power? 20 Which one of the gods from those countries has rescued their land from my power? Will the Lord save Jerusalem from my power?”
21 But they kept quiet and didn’t answer him with a single word, because King Hezekiah’s command was, “Don’t answer him!” 22 Hilkiah’s son Eliakim, who was the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Asaph’s son Joah the recorder came to Hezekiah with ripped clothes. They told him what the field commander had said.
Hezekiah and Isaiah
37 When King Hezekiah heard this, he ripped his clothes, covered himself with mourning clothes, and went to the Lord’s temple. 2 He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests to the prophet Isaiah, Amoz’s son. They were all wearing mourning clothes. 3 They said to him, “Hezekiah says this: Today is a day of distress, punishment, and humiliation. It’s as if children are ready to be born, but there’s no strength to see it through. 4 Perhaps the Lord your God heard all the words of the field commander who was sent by his master, Assyria’s king. He insulted the living God! Perhaps he will punish him for the words that the Lord your God has heard. Offer up a prayer for those few people who still survive.”
5 When King Hezekiah’s servants got to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, “Say this to your master: The Lord says this: Don’t be afraid at the words you heard, which the officers of Assyria’s king have used to insult me. 7 I’m about to mislead him, so when he hears a rumor, he’ll go back to his own country. Then I’ll have him cut down by the sword in his own land.”
8 The field commander heard that the Assyrian king had left Lachish. So he went back to the king and found him attacking Libnah. 9 Then the Assyrian king learned that Cush’s King Tirhakah was on his way to fight against him. So he sent messengers to Hezekiah again: 10 “Say this to Judah’s King Hezekiah: Don’t let the God you trust deceive you by saying, ‘Jerusalem won’t fall to the Assyrian king.’ 11 You yourself have heard what Assyrian kings do to other countries, wiping them out. Is it likely that you will be saved? 12 Did the gods of the nations that my ancestors destroyed save them, the gods of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, or the people of Eden in Telassar? 13 Where now is Hamath’s king, Arpad’s king, or the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena, or Ivvah?”[s]
Hezekiah prays
14 Hezekiah took the letters from the messengers and read them. Then he went to the temple and spread them out before the Lord. 15 Hezekiah prayed to the Lord:
16 “Lord of heavenly forces, God of Israel: you sit enthroned on the winged creatures. You alone are God over all the earth’s kingdoms. You made both heaven and earth. 17 Lord, turn your ear this way and hear! Lord, open your eyes and see! Listen to Sennacherib’s words. He sent them to insult the living God! 18 It’s true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have destroyed all the nations and their lands. 19 The Assyrians burned the gods of those nations with fire because they aren’t real gods. They are only man-made creations of wood and stone. That’s how the Assyrians could destroy them. 20 So now, Lord our God, please save us from Sennacherib’s power! Then all the earth’s kingdoms will know that you alone are Lord.”
21 Then Isaiah, Amoz’s son, sent a message to Hezekiah: The Lord God of Israel says this: Since you prayed to me about Assyria’s King Sennacherib, 22 this is the message that the Lord has spoken against him:
The young woman, Daughter Zion, despises you and mocks you;
Daughter Jerusalem shakes her head behind your back.
23 Whom did you insult and ridicule?
Against whom did you raise your voice
and look on with disdain?
It was against the holy one of Israel!
24 With your servants, you’ve insulted the Lord;
you said, “I, with my many chariots,
have gone up to the highest mountains,
to the farthest reaches of Lebanon.
I have cut down its tallest cedars,
the best of its pine trees.
I have reached its most remote lodging place,
its best forest.
25 I have dug wells,
have drunk water in foreign lands.[t]
With my own feet, I dried up all of Egypt’s streams.”
26 Haven’t you heard?
I set this up long ago;
I planned it in the distant past!
Now I have made it happen,
making fortified cities collapse into piles of rubble.
27 Their citizens have lost their power;
they are frightened and dismayed.
They’ve become like plants in a field,
tender green shoots,
the grass on rooftops,
blasted by the east wind.
28 I know where you are,
how you go out and come in,
and how you rage against me.
29 Because you rage against me and because your pride has reached my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth.
I will make you go back the same way you came.
30 Now this will be the sign for you, Hezekiah: This year you will eat what grows by itself. Next year you will eat what grows from that. But in the third year, plant seed and harvest it; plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 31 The survivors of Judah’s family who have escaped will put down roots and bear fruit above. 32 Those who remain will go out from Jerusalem, and those who survive will go out from Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of heavenly forces will do this.
33 Therefore, the Lord says this about Assyria’s king: He won’t enter this city. He won’t shoot a single arrow here. He won’t come near the city with a shield. He won’t build a ramp to besiege it. 34 He’ll go back by the same way he came. He won’t enter this city, declares the Lord. 35 I will defend this city and save it for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.
36 The Lord’s messenger went out and struck down one hundred eighty-five thousand soldiers in the Assyrian camp. When people got up the next morning, there were dead bodies everywhere. 37 So Assyria’s King Sennacherib left and went back to Nineveh, where he stayed. 38 Later, while he was worshipping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with a sword. Then they escaped to the land of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon ruled after him.
Hezekiah’s illness
38 At about that time Hezekiah became deathly sick. The prophet Isaiah, Amoz’s son, came to him and said: “The Lord God says this: Put your affairs in order because you are about to die. You won’t survive this.”
2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord: 3 “Please, Lord, remember how I’ve walked before you in truth and sincerity. I’ve done what you consider to be good.” Then Hezekiah cried and cried.
4 Then the Lord’s word came to Isaiah: 5 “Go and say to Hezekiah: The Lord, the God of your ancestor David, says this: I have heard your prayer and have seen your tears. I will add fifteen years to your life. 6 I will rescue you and this city from the power of the Assyrian king. I will defend this city. 7 This will be your sign from the Lord that he will do what he promised: 8 once the shadow cast by the sun descends on the steps of Ahaz, I will make it back up ten steps.” And the sun went back ten of the steps that it had already descended.
9 A composition by Judah’s King Hezekiah when he was sick and then recovered from his sickness:
10 I thought, I must depart in the prime of my life;
I have been relegated to the gates of the underworld[u] for the rest of my life.
11 I thought, I won’t see the Lord.
The Lord is in the land of the living.
I won’t look upon humans again
or be with the inhabitants of the world.
12 My lifetime is plucked up
and taken from me like a shepherd’s tent.
My life is shriveled like woven cloth;
God cuts me off from the loom.
Between daybreak and nightfall
you carry out your verdict against me.
13 I cried out[v] until morning:
“Like a lion God crushes all my bones.
Between daybreak and nightfall
you carry out your verdict against me.
14 Like a swallow[w] I chirp;
I moan like a dove.
My eyes have grown weary looking to heaven.
Lord, I’m overwhelmed; support me!”
15 What can I say?
God has spoken to me;
he himself has acted.
I will wander[x] my whole life
with a bitter spirit.
16 The Lord Most High is the one who gives life to every heart,
who gives life to the spirit![y]
17 Look, he indeed exchanged my bitterness for wholeness.[z]
You yourself have spared[aa] my whole being
from the pit of destruction,
because you have cast all my sins
behind your back.
18 The underworld[ab] can’t thank you,
nor can death[ac] praise you;
those who go down to the pit
can’t hope for your faithfulness.
19 The living, the living can thank you, as I do today.
Parents will tell children about your faithfulness.
20 The Lord has truly saved me,
and we will make music[ad] at the Lord’s house all the days of our lives.
21 Then Isaiah said, “Prepare a salve made from figs, put it on the swelling, and he’ll get better.”
22 Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What’s the sign that I’ll be able to go up to the Lord’s temple?”
The Babylonian king’s messengers
39 At that time, Babylon’s King Merodach-baladan, Baladan’s son, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been ill and had recovered. 2 Hezekiah was pleased, and he showed them his treasury—the silver and the gold, the spices and fine oil—and everything in his armory, all that was found in his storerooms. There wasn’t a thing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah didn’t show them.
3 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, “What did these men say? Where did they come from?”
Hezekiah replied, “They came to me from a distant land, from Babylon.”
4 So Isaiah said, “What did they see in your house?”
Hezekiah said, “They saw everything in my house. There was nothing in my storerooms that I didn’t show them.”
5 Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord of heavenly forces: 6 Days are coming when all that is in your house, which your ancestors have stored up until this day, will be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord. 7 Some of your sons, your own descendants whom you fathered, will be taken to become eunuchs in the king of Babylon’s palace.”
8 Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The Lord’s word that you delivered is good,” since he thought, That means there will be peace and security in my lifetime.
Comfort for God’s people
40 Comfort, comfort my people!
says your God.
2 Speak compassionately to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her that her compulsory service has ended,
that her penalty has been paid,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins!
3 A voice is crying out:
“Clear the Lord’s way in the desert!
Make a level highway in the wilderness for our God!
4 Every valley will be raised up,
and every mountain and hill will be flattened.
Uneven ground will become level,
and rough terrain a valley plain.
5 The Lord’s glory will appear,
and all humanity will see it together;
the Lord’s mouth has commanded it.”
6 A voice was saying:
“Call out!”
And another[ae] said,
“What should I call out?”
All flesh is grass;
all its loyalty is like the flowers of the field.
7 The grass dries up
and the flower withers
when the Lord’s breath blows on it.
Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass dries up;
the flower withers,
but our God’s word will exist forever.
9 Go up on a high mountain,
messenger Zion!
Raise your voice and shout,
messenger Jerusalem!
Raise it; don’t be afraid;
say to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
10 Here is the Lord God,
coming with strength,
with a triumphant arm,
bringing his reward with him
and his payment before him.
11 Like a shepherd, God will tend the flock;
he will gather lambs in his arms
and lift them onto his lap.
He will gently guide the nursing ewes.
The incomparable God
12 Who has measured the waters in the palm of a hand
or gauged the heavens with a ruler
or scooped the earth’s dust up in a measuring cup
or weighed the mountains on a scale
and the hills in a balance?
13 Who directed the Lord’s spirit
and acted as God’s advisor?
14 Whom did he consult for enlightenment?
Who taught him the path of justice and knowledge
and explained to him the way of understanding?
15 Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket,
and valued as dust on a scale.
Look, God weighs the islands like fine dust.
16 Lebanon doesn’t have enough fuel;
its animals aren’t enough for an entirely burned offering.
17 All the nations are like nothing before God.
They are viewed as less than nothing and emptiness.
18 So to whom will you equate God;
to what likeness will you compare him?
19 An idol? A craftsman pours it,
a metalworker covers it with gold,
and fashions silver chains.
20 The one who sets up an image chooses wood that won’t rot[af]
and then seeks a skilled artisan
to set up an idol that won’t move.
21 Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard?
Wasn’t it announced to you from the beginning?
Haven’t you understood since the earth was founded?
22 God inhabits the earth’s horizon—
its inhabitants are like locusts—
stretches out the skies like a curtain
and spreads it out like a tent for dwelling.
23 God makes dignitaries useless
and the earth’s judges into nothing.
24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
scarcely is their shoot rooted in the earth
when God breathes on them, and they dry up;
the windstorm carries them off like straw.
25 So to whom will you compare me,
and who is my equal? says the holy one.
Power for the weary
26 Look up at the sky and consider:
Who created these?
The one who brings out their attendants one by one,
summoning each of them by name.
Because of God’s great strength
and mighty power, not one is missing.
27 Why do you say, Jacob,
and declare, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
my God ignores my predicament”?
28 Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the creator of the ends of the earth.
He doesn’t grow tired or weary.
His understanding is beyond human reach,
29 giving power to the tired
and reviving the exhausted.
30 Youths will become tired and weary,
young men will certainly stumble;
31 but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength;
they will fly up on wings like eagles;
they will run and not be tired;
they will walk and not be weary.
Victor from the east
41 Be quiet before me, coastlands.
Let the nations renew their strength.
Let them approach and speak.
Let’s draw near for a judgment.
2 Who has awakened one from the east
and has authority to summon him to serve—
giving him nations,
conquering kings,
making them like dust with his sword,
like scattered straw with his bow?
3 He pursues them and passes untouched,
needing no path for his feet.
4 Who has acted and who has done this,
calling upon generation after generation since the beginning?
I, the Lord, was first,
and I will be the last!
5 The coastlands see and fear;
the ends of the earth tremble;
they draw near and arrive.
6 Each helps the other,
each saying to the other, “Take courage!”
7 The craftsman encourages the metalworker;
the one who smoothes with the hammer
encourages the one who strikes the anvil,
saying of the welding, “That’s good,”
and strengthening it with nails so it won’t move.
Israel as God’s servant
8 But you, Israel my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen,
offspring of Abraham, whom I love,
9 you whom I took from the ends of the earth
and called from its farthest corners,
saying to you, “You are my servant;
I chose you and didn’t reject you”:
10 Don’t fear, because I am with you;
don’t be afraid, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
I will surely help you;
I will hold you
with my righteous strong hand.
11 All who rage against you will be shamed and disgraced.
Those who contend with you
will be as nothing and will perish.
12 You will look for your opponents,
and won’t find them.
Those who fight you will be of no account and will die.
13 I am the Lord your God,
who grasps your strong hand,
who says to you,
Don’t fear; I will help you.
14 Don’t fear, worm of Jacob,
people of Israel!
I will help you, says the Lord.
The holy one of Israel is your redeemer.
15 Look, I’ve made you
into a new threshing tool with sharp teeth.
You will thresh mountains and pulverize them;
you will reduce hills to straw.
16 When you winnow them,
the wind will carry them off;
the tempest will scatter them.
You will rejoice in the Lord
and take pride in the holy one of Israel.
17 The poor and the needy seek water, and there is none;
their tongues are parched with thirst.
I, the Lord, will respond to them;
I, the God of Israel, won’t abandon them.
18 I will open streams on treeless hilltops
and springs in valleys.
I will make the desert into ponds
and dry land into cascades of water.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible