Chronological

37 And it was done, when king Hezekiah had heard, he rent his clothes, and he was wrapped in a sackcloth, and entered into the house of the Lord. (And it was done, when King Hezekiah had heard this, he tore his clothes, and wrapped himself in a sackcloth, and entered into the House of the Lord.)

² And he sent Eliakim, that was on the house, and Shebna, the scribe, and the elder men of (the) priests, covered with sackcloths, to Isaiah, the prophet, the son of Amoz. (And he sent Eliakim, who was over the king’s household, and Shebna, the writer, or the royal secretary, and the elders of the priests, covered in sackcloths, to the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz.)

³ And they said to him, Hezekiah saith these things, A day of tribulation, and of anguish, and of chastising, and of blasphemy is this day; for children came unto childbearing, and strength of childbearing is not (for the child is ready to be born, but there is no strength for giving birth).

⁴ Therefore raise thou [up] prayer for the remnants (of our people) that be found, if in any manner thy Lord God (shall) hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyrians, his lord, sent, for to blaspheme [the] living God, and to despise by the words, which thy Lord God heard (and to punish them for the words which the Lord thy God himself hath heard).

⁵ And the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah;

⁶ and Isaiah said to them, Ye shall say these things to your lord, The Lord saith these things, Dread thou not of the face of [the] words which thou heardest, by which the servants of the king of Assyrians blasphemed me. (and Isaiah said to them, Ye shall say these things to your lord, The Lord saith these things, Fear thou not the words which thou hast heard, by which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.)

⁷ Lo! I shall give to him a spirit, and he shall hear a messenger; and he shall turn again to his land, and I shall make him to fall down by sword in his land.

⁸ Forsooth Rabshakeh turned again, and found the king of Assyrians fighting against Libnah; for he had heard, that the king was gone from Lachish. (And Rabshakeh turned back, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah; for he had heard, that the king had left Lachish.)

⁹ And (then) the king heard (from) messengers saying of Tirhakah, king of Ethiopians, He is gone out to fight against thee. And when he had heard this thing, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, and said,

¹⁰ Ye shall say, speaking these things to Hezekiah, king of Judah, Thy God deceive not thee, in whom thou trustest, and sayest, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyrians. (Ye shall say these things to Hezekiah, the king of Judah, Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee, by saying that Jerusalem shall not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.)

¹¹ Lo! thou heardest all things which the kings of Assyrians did to all lands which they destroyed; and mayest thou be delivered? (Lo! thou hast heard of all the things which the kings of Assyria did to all the lands which they destroyed; and can thou alone be rescued, or saved?)

¹² Whether the gods of folks delivered them, which my fathers destroyed (Did the gods of the nations whom my forefathers destroyed, save them); Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the sons of Eden, that were in Telassar?

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

¹⁴ And Hezekiah took the books from the hand of the messengers, and read them; and he went up into the house of the Lord, and spreaded abroad them before the Lord; (And Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers, and read it; and he went up into the House of the Lord, and spread it out before the Lord;)

¹⁵ and prayed to the Lord, and said,

¹⁶ Lord of hosts, God of Israel, that sittest on cherubim (Lord of hosts, God of Israel, who sittest between the cherubim), thou art God alone of all the realms of [the] earth; thou madest heaven and earth.

¹⁷ Lord, bow down thine ear, and hear; Lord, open thine eyes, and see; and hear thou all the words of Sennacherib, which he sent for to blaspheme (the) living God.

¹⁸ For verily, Lord, the kings of Assyrians made lands desert, and the countries of them, (For truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have made into desert, or laid waste, many lands, and all their countryside,)

¹⁹ and gave the gods of them to (the) fire; for they were not gods, but the works of men’s hands, wood and stones; and they all-brake those gods.

²⁰ And now, our Lord God, save thou us from the hand of him; and all [the] realms of earth know, that thou art the Lord God alone. (And now, Lord our God, save thou us from his hand, or from his power; and then all the kingdoms of the earth shall know, that thou art the Lord God alone.)

²¹ And Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, and said, The Lord God of Israel saith these things, For which things thou prayedest me of Sennacherib, the king of Assyrians (the king of Assyria),

²² this is the word which the Lord spake on him, Thou virgin, the daughter of Zion, he despised thee, he scorned thee; thou virgin, the daughter of Jerusalem, he moved his head after thee. (this is the word which the Lord spoke about him, saying, O Sennacherib, the virgin, the daughter of Zion, despiseth thee, and she mocketh thee; the virgin, the daughter of Jerusalem, shaketh her head over thee.)

²³ (But) Whom despisest thou, and whom blasphemedest thou? and on whom raisedest thou thy voice, and raisedest the highness of thine eyes? To the Holy of Israel. (For whom hast thou despised, and whom hast thou blasphemed? and against whom hast thou raised up thy voice, and raised up the highness of thine eyes? To the Holy One of Israel.)

²⁴ By the hand of thy servants thou despisedest the Lord, and saidest, In the multitude of my carts (In the multitude of my chariots), I ascended [up]on the highnesses of (the) hills, on the yokes of Lebanon; and I shall cut down the high things of cedars thereof, and the chosen beeches thereof; and I shall enter into the highness of the top thereof, into the forest of Carmel thereof.

²⁵ I digged, and drank water; and I made dry with the step of my foot all the strands of [the] fields.

²⁶ Whether thou, Sennacherib, heardest not what things I did sometime? From eld days I formed that thing, and now I have brought (it to pass); and it is made into the drawing up by the root of (the) little hills fighting together, and of strong cities (In the old days, I formed that thing, and now I have brought it to pass; yea, bringing down strengthened cities into heaps of rubble).

²⁷ The dwellers of those cities trembled together with hand made short, and be ashamed; they be made as hay of the field, and as the grass of [the] pasture, and as herb of house roofs, either ridges, that dried up before that it waxed ripe. (The inhabitants of those cities trembled together with shortened hand, or powerless, and were ashamed; they were made like the hay of the field, and like the grass of the pasture, and like the herbs on the rooftops, that dried up before that they could ripen.)

²⁸ I knew thy dwelling (place), and thy going out, and thine entering (in), and thy strong vengeance against me.

²⁹ When thou were wroth against me, thy pride ascended into mine ears; therefore I shall set a ring in thy nostrils, and a bridle in thy lips; and I shall lead thee into the way, by which thou camest. (When thou were angry against me, thy pride came into my ears; and so I shall set a ring in thy nose, and a bridle upon thy lips, and I shall lead thee back by the way, by which thou camest.)

³⁰ Forsooth to thee, Hezekiah, this shall be a sign; eat thou in this year those things that grow by their free will, and in the second year eat thou apples; but in the third year, sow ye, and reap ye, and plant ye vineries (and plant ye vineyards), and eat ye the fruit of them.

³¹ And that that is saved of the house of Judah, and that, that is left, shall send [the] root beneath, and shall make fruit above;

³² for why (the) remnants (of the people) shall go out of Jerusalem, and salvation from the hill of Zion (and those who be saved, from Mount Zion); the fervent love of the Lord of hosts shall do this thing.

³³ Therefore the Lord saith these things of the king of Assyrians, He shall not enter into this city, and he shall not shoot there an arrow; and a shield shall not occupy it, and he shall not send [an heap of] earth in the compass thereof. (And so the Lord saith these things about the king of Assyria, He shall not enter into this city, and he shall not shoot an arrow there; and he shall not occupy it with his shield, and he shall not build up a heap of earth all around it.)

³⁴ In the way in which he came, he shall turn again by it (By the way in which he came, so he shall return); and he shall not enter into this city, saith the Lord.

³⁵ And I shall defend this city, that I save it, for me, and for David, my servant. (And I shall defend this city, so that I save it, for me, and for my servant David.)

³⁶ Forsooth the angel of the Lord went out, and killed an hundred thousand and fourscore and five thousand in the tents of (the) Assyrians; and they rose early, and lo! all men were [the] carrions of dead men (all the men were corpses).

³⁷ And Sennacherib went out of Judah, and went away. And Sennacherib, the king of Assyrians, turned again, and dwelled in Nineveh (And Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, returned home, and lived in Nineveh).

³⁸ And it was done, when he worshipped Nisroch, his god, in the temple, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, killed him with sword, and fled into the land of Ararat, that is, Armenia; and Esarhaddon, his son, reigned for him.

38 In those days Hezekiah was sick unto the death; and Isaiah, the prophet, the son of Amoz, entered to him, and said to him, The Lord saith these things, Dispose thy house, for thou shalt die, and thou shalt not live. (In those days Hezekiah was sick unto the death; and the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz, went to him, and said to him, The Lord saith these things, Set thy affairs in order, for soon thou shalt die, and thou shalt not live.)

² And Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed the Lord,

³ and said, Lord, I beseech; have thou mind, I beseech, how I went before thee in truth, and in perfect heart, and I did that that was good before thine eyes. And Hezekiah wept with great weeping. (and said, Lord, I beseech thee; remember, I beseech thee, how I went before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and I did what was good before thine eyes. And Hezekiah wept with a great weeping.)

⁴ And the word of the Lord was made to Isaiah, and said,

⁵ Go thou, and say to Hezekiah, The Lord God of David, thy father, saith these things, I have heard thy prayer, and I saw thy tears. Lo! I shall add on(to) thy days fifteen years;

⁶ and I shall deliver thee and this city from the hand of the king of Assyrians, and I shall defend it.

⁷ Forsooth this shall be to thee a sign of the Lord, that the Lord shall do this word, which he hath spoken. (For this shall be a sign to thee from the Lord, that the Lord shall do this thing, which he hath spoken.)

⁸ Lo! I shall make the shadow of lines, by which it went down in the horologe of Ahaz, in the sun, to turn again backward by ten lines. And the sun turned again by ten lines, by [the] degrees by which it had gone down. (Lo! I shall make the shadow, cast by the sun, which went down on the stairway of Ahaz, to turn backward, or to go up, ten steps. And so the sun went back up ten steps on the stairway, on which it had just gone down.)

⁹ The scripture of Hezekiah, king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered of his sickness.

¹⁰ I said, in the middle of my days, I shall go to the gates of hell. I sought the residue of my years; (I said, in the middle of my days, I shall go now to the gates of Sheol, that is, to the gates of the land of the dead/I shall go now to the gates of the grave; I shall be deprived of the rest of my years;)

¹¹ I said, I shall not see the Lord God in the land of livers; I shall no more behold a man, and a dweller of rest. (I said, I shall no longer see the Lord God in the land of the living; I shall no longer see any person, or any other inhabitant of this world.)

¹² My generation is taken away, and is folded together from me, as the tabernacle of shepherds is folded together. My life is cut down as of a web; he cutted down me, the while I was woven yet. (My source of life is folded up, and taken away from me, like a shepherd’s tent is folded up. My life is cut down like a web; he cut me down, while I was still weaving it.)

¹³ From the morrowtide till to the eventide (I felt like) thou shalt end me; I hoped till to the morrowtide; as a lion, so he all-brake my bones. From the morrowtide till to the eventide (I felt like) thou shalt end me; (From the morning until the evening I felt like thou shalt end me; then I was in pain until the morning again; like a lion, thou hast broken all my bones. From the morning until the evening I felt like thou shalt end me;)

¹⁴ as the young of a swallow, so I shall cry; I shall bethink as a culver (I shall moan like a dove). Mine eyes beholding on high, be made feeble. Lord, I suffer violence, answer thou for me;

¹⁵ what shall I say, either what shall he answer to me, when he hath done (this)? I shall bethink to thee all my years, in the bitterness of my soul. (what shall I say, or what shall he answer to me, when he himself hath done this? I shall think about thee all my years, in the bitterness of my soul.)

¹⁶ Lord, if men liveth so (Lord, if people so liveth), and the life of my spirit is in such things, (then) thou shalt chastise me, and shalt quicken me.

¹⁷ Lo! my bitterness is most bitter in peace (Lo! peace was my bitterness, and it was most bitter); forsooth thou hast delivered my soul, that it perished not; thou hast cast away behind thy back all my sins.

¹⁸ For not hell shall acknowledge to thee, neither death shall praise thee; they that go down into the pit, shall not abide thy truth. (For Sheol, or the grave, shall not acknowledge thee, nor shall death praise thee; and they who go down into the pit, shall not wait for thy truth.)

¹⁹ A living man, a living man, he shall acknowledge to thee, as and I today; the father shall make known thy truth to [the] sons. (But a living man, yea, a living man, he shall acknowledge thee, like I do today; and the father shall make thy truth known to his children.)

²⁰ Lord, make thou me safe, and we shall sing our psalms in all the days of our life in the house of the Lord. (Lord, thou hast saved me, and so we shall sing our songs all the days of our lives in the House of the Lord.)

²¹ And Isaiah commanded, that they should take a gobbet of figs, and make a plaster on the wound; and it should be healed. (For Isaiah had commanded, that they should take a piece of figs, and put a plaster on the wound; and then he would be healed.)

²² And Hezekiah said, What sign shall be, that I shall ascend into the house of the Lord? (And then Hezekiah had said, What shall be the sign, that I shall go up into the House of the Lord again?)

39 In that time Merodachbaladan, the son of Baladan, the king of Babylon, sent books and gifts to Hezekiah; for he had heard, that Hezekiah had been sick, and was recovered. (At that time Merodachbaladan, the son of Baladan, the king of Babylon, sent letters and gifts to Hezekiah; for he had heard, that Hezekiah had been sick, but now had recovered.)

² Forsooth Hezekiah was glad on them, and showed to them the cell(s) of sweet smelling spices, and of silver, and of gold, and of smelling things, and of best ointment, and all the shops of his purtenance of household, and all things that were found in his treasures; no word was, which Hezekiah showed not to them in his house, and in all his power. (And Hezekiah welcomed the messengers, and showed them the rooms for the sweet smelling spices, and the rooms for the silver, and the gold, and the best perfumes, and all the shops of his purtenance of household, and everything that was found among his treasures; yea, there was nothing, which Hezekiah did not show them in his house, and of all his power.)

³ Soothly Isaiah, the prophet, entered to king Hezekiah (And the prophet Isaiah went in to King Hezekiah), and said to him, What said these men, and from whence came they to thee? And Hezekiah said, From a far land they came to me, from Babylon.

⁴ And Isaiah said, What saw they in thine house? And Hezekiah said, They saw all things that be in mine house; nothing was in my treasures, which I showed not to them.

⁵ And Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Hear thou the word of the Lord of hosts.

⁶ Lo! days shall come, and all things that be in thine house, and which things thy fathers treasured till to this day (and which things thy forefathers treasured unto this day), shall be taken away into Babylon; not anything shall be left, saith the Lord.

⁷ And they shall take [away] of thy sons, that shall go out of thee, which thou shalt engender; and they shall be honest servants and chaste in the palace of the king of Babylon. (And they shall take away some of thy sons, who shall go out of thee, whom thou shalt beget; and they shall be made honest and chaste servants, that is, they shall be made eunuchs, to serve in the palace of the king of Babylon.)

⁸ And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, The word of the Lord is good, which he spake. And Hezekiah said, Peace and truth be made only in my days. (And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, The word of the Lord is good, which he spoke. And Hezekiah said, Let there be only peace and truth in my days.)

76 To the victory in organs, the psalm of the song of Asaph. (To victory, on instruments, the psalm of the song of Asaph.) God is known in Judah; his name is great in Israel.

² And his place is made in peace; and his dwelling is in Zion. (And his Tabernacle, or his Tent, is pitched in Salem; and his dwelling place is in Zion.)

³ There he brake powers; bow, shield, sword, and battle.

⁴ And thou, God, lightenest wonderfully (coming back) from everlasting hills; (And thou, O God, wonderfully lightenest, coming back from the everlasting hills;)

⁵ all unwise men of heart were troubled. They slept their sleep, that is, were dead; and all men found nothing of riches in their hands. (and all who were foolish and ignorant were troubled. But now they have slept their sleep, that is, they be dead; and all their riches be found to be nothing in their hands.)

⁶ They that ascended on horses; slept for thy blaming, thou God of Jacob. (They who ascended on horses; now be asleep, or dead, after thy rebuke, O God of Jacob.)

⁷ Thou art fearful, and who shall against-stand thee? from that time (of) thine ire. (Thou art to be feared; and who shall be able to stand against thee, when thou art angry?)

⁸ From heaven thou madest doom heard; the earth trembled, and rested. (From heaven thou madest thy judgement heard; and the earth trembled, or shook, and kept silent.)

⁹ When God rose up into doom; to make safe all the mild men of earth. (When God rose up to judge; and to save all the humble of the earth.)

¹⁰ For the thought of man shall acknowledge to thee; and the remnants of thought/the leavings of thought shall make a feast day to thee. (For all their anger, people shall still praise thee; and they who be the remnants/who be the survivors shall make a feast day to thee.)

¹¹ Make ye a vow, and yield ye to your Lord God; all that bring gifts in the compass of it. To God fearedful, (Make ye a vow, and pay ye it to the Lord your God; and let those who be all around bring gifts to him. To him who is to be feared,)

¹² and to him that taketh away the spirit of princes; to the fearedful at the kings of earth. (to him who breaketh the spirit of princes, or of the leaders; to him who is feared by all the kings of the earth.)