Chronological
The Land and Its People Are Transformed
35 Let the wilderness and desert be happy;[a]
let the arid rift valley[b] rejoice and bloom like a lily!
2 Let it richly bloom;[c]
let it rejoice and shout with delight![d]
It is given the grandeur[e] of Lebanon,
the splendor of Carmel and Sharon.
They will see the grandeur of the Lord,
the splendor of our God.
3 Strengthen the hands that have gone limp,
steady the knees that shake.[f]
4 Tell those who panic,[g]
“Be strong! Do not fear!
Look, your God comes to avenge;
with divine retribution he comes to deliver you.”[h]
5 Then blind eyes will open,
deaf ears will hear.
6 Then the lame will leap like a deer,
the mute tongue will shout for joy;
for water will burst forth in the wilderness,
streams in the arid rift valley.[i]
7 The dry soil will become a pool of water,
the parched ground springs of water.
Where jackals once lived and sprawled out,
grass, reeds, and papyrus will grow.
8 A thoroughfare will be there—
it will be called the Way of Holiness.[j]
The unclean will not travel on it;
it is reserved for those authorized to use it[k]—
fools[l] will not stray into it.
9 No lions will be there,
no ferocious wild animals will be on it[m]—
they will not be found there.
Those delivered from bondage will travel on it,
10 those whom the Lord has ransomed will return that way.[n]
They will enter Zion with a happy shout.
Unending joy will crown them,[o]
happiness and joy will overwhelm[p] them;
grief and suffering will disappear.[q]
Sennacherib Invades Judah
36 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign,[r] King Sennacherib of Assyria marched up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. 2 The king of Assyria sent his chief adviser[s] from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem, along with a large army. The chief adviser[t] stood at the conduit of the upper pool that is located on the road to the field where they wash and dry cloth.[u] 3 Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went out to meet him.
4 The chief adviser said to them, “Tell Hezekiah: ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: “What is your source of confidence?[v] 5 Your claim to have a strategy and military strength is just empty talk.[w] In whom are you trusting, that you would dare to rebel against me? 6 Look, you must be trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed staff. If someone leans on it for support, it punctures his hand and wounds him. That is what Pharaoh king of Egypt does to all who trust in him! 7 Perhaps you will tell me, ‘We are trusting in the Lord our God.’ But Hezekiah is the one who eliminated his high places and altars and then told the people of Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship at this altar.’ 8 Now make a deal with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you 2,000 horses, provided you can find enough riders for them. 9 Certainly you will not refuse one of my master’s minor officials and trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen.[x] 10 Furthermore it was by the command of the Lord that I marched up against this land to destroy it. The Lord told me, ‘March up against this land and destroy it!’”’”[y]
11 Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the chief adviser, “Speak to your servants in Aramaic,[z] for we understand it. Don’t speak with us in the Judahite dialect[aa] in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” 12 But the chief adviser said, “My master did not send me to speak these words only to your master and to you.[ab] His message is also for the men who sit on the wall, for they will eat their own excrement and drink their own urine along with you!”[ac]
13 The chief adviser then stood there and called out loudly in the Judahite dialect,[ad] “Listen to the message of the great king, the king of Assyria. 14 This is what the king says: ‘Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you, for he is not able to rescue you! 15 Don’t let Hezekiah talk you into trusting in the Lord by saying, “The Lord will certainly rescue us; this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.” 16 Don’t listen to Hezekiah!’ For this is what the king of Assyria says, ‘Send me a token of your submission and surrender to me.[ae] Then each of you may eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern, 17 until I come and take you to a land just like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18 Hezekiah is misleading you when he says, “The Lord will rescue us.” Have any of the gods of the nations rescued their lands from the power of the king of Assyria?[af] 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim?[ag] Indeed, did any gods rescue Samaria from my power?[ah] 20 Who among all the gods of these lands have rescued their lands from my power? So how can the Lord rescue Jerusalem from my power?’”[ai] 21 They were silent and did not respond, for the king had ordered, “Don’t respond to him.”
22 Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn[aj] and reported to him what the chief adviser had said.
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