Old/New Testament
Chapter 37
1 When King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes, wrapped himself in sackcloth, and went into the temple of the Lord. 2 He sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, and Shebna the secretary, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz 3 and gave him this message:
“Thus says Hezekiah, ‘Today is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace. Children come to the moment of birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth. 4 It may be that the Lord, your God heard the words of the chief officer, whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to taunt the living God, and that he will be rebuked for the words which the Lord, your God has heard. Offer your prayer for the remnant that still survive.’ ”
5 When the ministers of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, 6 he said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Do not be alarmed because of the words that you have heard with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7 I will put a spirit in him so that when he hears a certain rumor he will go back to his own country, and there I will cause him to fall by the sword.’ ”
8 Meanwhile, the chief officer returned and discovered that the king of Assyria had departed from Lachish and was fighting against Libnah,[a] 9 since he had heard that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia was on his way to attack him. On learning this, he sent envoys to Hezekiah with this message:
10 “Thus shall you say to King Hezekiah of Judah: ‘Do not let your God upon whom you rely deceive you with the promise that Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria. 11 You yourself must have learned by now what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other countries, subjecting them to complete destruction. Will you then be delivered? 12 Did the gods of the nations whom my ancestors destroyed deliver them: Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were living in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena, or Ivvah?’ ”
14 Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. 15 Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and, spreading it out before him, he prayed to the Lord: 16 “O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned upon the cherubim, you alone are God of all the kingdoms of the world. You have created the heavens and the earth. 17 Incline your ear, O Lord, and listen; open your eyes, O Lord, and see. Hear all the words of Sennacherib whose purpose is to taunt the living God. 18 Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands. 19 They have cast their gods into the fire because they were not truly gods but the work of human hands, fashioned from wood and stone—and so they were destroyed. 20 Therefore, O Lord, our God, save us from his hands so that all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you alone, O Lord, are God.”
21 Sennacherib’s Punishment. Then Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent the following message to Hezekiah: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: In answer to your prayer to me requesting help against King Sennacherib of Assyria, 22 this is the pronouncement that the Lord has made in regard to him:
“The virgin daughter of Zion
despises you and scorns you.
While you retreat the daughter of Jerusalem
tosses her head at you.
23 Whom have you insulted and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice,
and haughtily lifted up your eyes?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
24 Through your servants you have insulted the Lord
and boasted: ‘With my many chariots
I have ascended the mountain heights,
the farthest peaks of Lebanon.
I have felled its tallest cedars,
its finest cypresses.
I have reached its highest peak
and its most luxuriant forest.
25 I have dug wells in foreign lands
and drunk the water there,
and with the soles of my feet
I have dried up all the rivers of Egypt.’
26 “Have you not heard
that I devised this plan long ago?
I planned it from days of old,
and now I have brought this to fruition:
you have reduced your fortified cities
into heaps of rubble,
27 while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,
are dismayed and frustrated;
they have become like plants of the field,
like tender green herbs,
like grass on housetops and fields
scorched by the east wind.
28 “I know when you stand or sit,
I know when you come in or go out,
and I am aware how you rage against me.
29 Because you have raged against me
and your arrogance has reached my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth
and force you to return
by the way you came.
30 This will be the sign for you:
This year you will eat what grows by itself,
and in the second year what springs forth from that.
However, in the third year sow and reap,
plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
31 The surviving remnant of the house of Judah
will again take root below
and bear fruit above.
32 For out of Jerusalem will come forth a remnant,
and from Mount Zion a band of survivors.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
33 “Therefore, this is the word of the Lord
in regard to the king of Assyria:
He will not come into this city
or shoot an arrow at it;
he will not advance against it with a shield
or build a siege-ramp against it.
34 By the way that he came,
by that same way he will return;
he will not enter this city, says the Lord.
35 I will protect this city and save it
for my own sake
and for the sake of my servant David.”
36 Then the angel of the Lord went forth and struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When morning dawned, the ground was covered with corpses.[b] 37 Then King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and returned home to Nineveh.
38 One day, as he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer slew him with the sword and then fled to the land of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon succeeded him.
Chapter 38
Hezekiah’s Sickness and Recovery. 1 During that period, Hezekiah fell ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, came to him and said, “Thus says the Lord: Put your affairs in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.”
2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, 3 “I beg you, O Lord, to remember how I have conducted myself faithfully in your presence and have always done what was pleasing to you.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4 Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, 5 “Go and say to Hezekiah: Thus says the Lord, the God of your ancestor David. I have heard your prayer and I have seen your tears. Therefore, I have decided to heal you. In three days you will go up to the temple of the Lord, and I will add fifteen years to your life. 6 I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria and defend this city.”
[21 Isaiah thereupon ordered a poultice of figs to be prepared and applied to the boil so that Hezekiah might recover. 22 Then Hezekiah asked, “What is the sign to confirm that I will go up to the temple of the Lord?”]
7 Isaiah replied, “This will be the sign to you from the Lord that he will do as he has promised. 8 I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the stairway of Ahaz to turn back ten steps.” And the sun then retreated the ten steps it had previously advanced.
Hezekiah’s Hymn of Thanksgiving.[c] 9 A canticle written by King Hezekiah of Judah after his recovery from his illness:
10 Once I said,
“In the noontime of my life
I must depart.
I will be consigned to the gates of Sheol
for the rest of my years.”
11 I said, “I will no longer see the Lord
in the land of the living.
I will no longer see any of my fellow men
as I did when I dwelled in the world.
12 “My dwelling has been torn down and thrown away
like a shepherd’s tent;
like a weaver I have rolled up my life
and the last thread has been severed.
Day and night I am subject to torment;
13 I cry out for help until the dawn.
All my bones are crushed, as if by a lion;
day and night I suffer in torment.
14 “Like a swallow I twitter;
I moan like a dove.
My eyes have grown dim looking up to heaven;
O Lord, come to my aid in my suffering.
15 Yet how can I complain? What should I say?
He himself has done this.
I will wander aimlessly for the rest of my years
because of the bitterness of my soul.
16 “However, you, O Lord, are always present to protect me,
and you grant life to my spirit;
you will restore me to health
and enable me to live.
17 Clearly it was for my benefit
that I suffered such anguish,
but you have preserved my life
from the pit of destruction,
for you have cast all my sins
behind your back.
18 For Sheol cannot give you thanks,
nor can death praise you.
Those who go down into the pit
cannot hope for your kindness.
19 It is the living, only the living, who can thank you
as I am doing today,
just as fathers make known to their sons
your faithfulness, O God.
20 “The Lord is my savior,
and we will sing to stringed instruments
all the days of our lives
in the house of the Lord.”
Exhortation To Live as Christians
Chapter 3
Seek the Things That Are Above.[a] 1 Therefore, since you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand. 2 Fix your thoughts on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth, 3 for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
A New Self.[b] 5 And so you should put to death everything in your nature that is earthly: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desires, and greed (which is idolatry).[c] 6 Because of these practices, the wrath of God will fall on those who are disobedient. 7 In the life you formerly lived, you used to do these things. 8 But now you must cast them all aside—anger, rage, malice, slander, and foul language out of your lips.
9 Do not lie to one another, since you have stripped off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self that is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Now there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian and Scythian,[d] slave and free man. Rather, Christ is all and in all.
12 Characteristics of Life in Common.[e] As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Bear with one another, and forgive one another if anyone has reason to be offended with another. You must forgive just as the Lord has forgiven you.
14 Over all these put on love, which is the bond of perfection. 15 And let the peace of Christ reign in your hearts, because it was for this that you were called together in one body. Always be thankful.
16 Let the word of Christ[f] with all its richness dwell in you. Teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
18 The Christian Family.[g]Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives and do not treat them harshly. 20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is pleasing to the Lord. 21 Fathers, do not provoke your children lest they lose heart.
22 Slaves and Masters. Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything, not only when you are being observed or in order to please them, but wholeheartedly, out of reverence for the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, do it wholeheartedly, as if you were doing it for the Lord and not for others, 24 since you know that you will receive from the Lord an inheritance as your reward for you are serving the Lord Christ. 25 But anyone who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done. There will not be any favoritism shown.
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