Isaiah 37-39

Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah’s Help

37 As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore 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 secretary, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz. ³ They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. ⁴ It may be that the Lord your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’”

⁵ When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, ⁶ Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have reviled me. ⁷ Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’”

⁸ The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish. ⁹ Now the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush,^[a] “He has set out to fight against you.” And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰ “Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. ¹¹ Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered? ¹² Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? ¹³ Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?’”

Hezekiah’s Prayer for Deliverance

¹⁴ Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. ¹⁵ And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: ¹⁶ “O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made the heavens and the earth. ¹⁷ Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. ¹⁸ Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, 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 were destroyed. ²⁰ So now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.”

Sennacherib’s Fall

²¹ Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, ²² this is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him:

“‘She despises you, she scorns you—
    the virgin daughter of Zion;
she wags her head behind you—
    the daughter of Jerusalem.

²³ “‘Whom have you mocked and reviled?
    Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes to the heights?
    Against the Holy One of Israel!
²⁴ By your servants you have mocked the Lord,
    and you have said, With my many chariots
I have gone up the heights of the mountains,
    to the far recesses of Lebanon,
to cut down its tallest cedars,
    its choicest cypresses,
to come to its remotest height,
    its most fruitful forest.
²⁵ I dug wells
    and drank waters,
to dry up with the sole of my foot
    all the streams of Egypt.

²⁶ “‘Have you not heard
    that I determined it long ago?
I planned from days of old
    what now I bring to pass,
that you should make fortified cities
    crash into heaps of ruins,
²⁷ while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,
    are dismayed and confounded,
and have become like plants of the field
    and like tender grass,
like grass on the housetops,
    blighted^[b] before it is grown.

²⁸ “‘I know your sitting down
    and your going out and coming in,
    and your raging against me.
²⁹ Because you have raged against me
    and your complacency has come to my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
    and my bit in your mouth,
and I will turn you back on the way
    by which you came.’

³⁰ “And this shall be the sign for you: this year you shall eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from that. Then in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. ³¹ And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. ³² For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

³³ “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it. ³⁴ By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the Lord. ³⁵ For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”

³⁶ And the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. ³⁷ Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh. ³⁸ And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword. And after they escaped into the land of Ararat, Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

Hezekiah’s Sickness and Recovery

38 In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: Set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover.”^{[c] 2} Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, ³ and said, “Please, O Lord, remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” 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 David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.^{[d] 6} I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and will defend this city.

⁷ “This shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that he has promised: ⁸ Behold, I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps.” So the sun turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it had declined.^[e]

⁹ A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, after he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:

¹⁰ I said, In the middle^[f] of my days
    I must depart;
I am consigned to the gates of Sheol
    for the rest of my years.
¹¹ I said, I shall not see the Lord,
    the Lord in the land of the living;
I shall look on man no more
    among the inhabitants of the world.
¹² My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me
    like a shepherd’s tent;
like a weaver I have rolled up my life;
    he cuts me off from the loom;
from day to night you bring me to an end;
¹³     I calmed myself^[g] until morning;
like a lion he breaks all my bones;
    from day to night you bring me to an end.

¹⁴ Like a swallow or a crane I chirp;
    I moan like a dove.
My eyes are weary with looking upward.
    O Lord, I am oppressed; be my pledge of safety!
¹⁵ What shall I say? For he has spoken to me,
    and he himself has done it.
I walk slowly all my years
    because of the bitterness of my soul.

¹⁶ O Lord, by these things men live,
    and in all these is the life of my spirit.
    Oh restore me to health and make me live!
¹⁷ Behold, it was for my welfare
    that I had great bitterness;
but in love you have delivered my life
    from the pit of destruction,
for you have cast all my sins
    behind your back.
¹⁸ For Sheol does not thank you;
    death does not praise you;
those who go down to the pit do not hope
    for your faithfulness.
¹⁹ The living, the living, he thanks you,
    as I do this day;
the father makes known to the children
    your faithfulness.

²⁰ The Lord will save me,
    and we will play my music on stringed instruments
all the days of our lives,
    at the house of the Lord.

²¹ Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover.” ²² Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?”

Envoys from Babylon

39 At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered. ² And Hezekiah welcomed them gladly. And he showed them his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his whole armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them. ³ Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?” Hezekiah said, “They have come to me from a far country, from Babylon.” ⁴ He said, “What have they seen in your house?” Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.”

⁵ Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord of hosts: ⁶ Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. ⁷ And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” ⁸ Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my days.”

Footnotes

1. Isaiah 37:9 Probably Nubia
2. Isaiah 37:27 Some Hebrew manuscripts and 2 Kings 19:26; most Hebrew manuscripts a field
3. Isaiah 38:1 Or live; also verses 9, 21
4. Isaiah 38:5 Hebrew to your days
5. Isaiah 38:8 The meaning of the Hebrew verse is uncertain
6. Isaiah 38:10 Or In the quiet
7. Isaiah 38:13 Or (with Targum) I cried for help

Isaiah Assures Deliverance

37 And so it was, when King Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord. ² Then he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. ³ And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah: ‘This day is a day of trouble and rebuke and ^[a]blasphemy; for the children have come to birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth. ⁴ It may be that the Lord your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’ ”

⁵ So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. ⁶ And Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. ⁷ Surely I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.” ’ ”

Sennacherib’s Threat and Hezekiah’s Prayer

⁸ Then the Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he heard that he had departed from Lachish. ⁹ And the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “He has come out to make war with you.” So when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰ “Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying: ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ¹¹ Look! You have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by utterly destroying them; and shall you be delivered? ¹² Have the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? ¹³ Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?’ ”

¹⁴ And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. ¹⁵ Then Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying: ¹⁶ “O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. ¹⁷ Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. ¹⁸ Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, ¹⁹ and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands—wood and stone. Therefore they destroyed them. ²⁰ Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the Lord, You alone.”

The Word of the Lord Concerning Sennacherib

²¹ Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, ²² this is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning him:

“The virgin, the daughter of Zion,
Has despised you, laughed you to scorn;
The daughter of Jerusalem
Has shaken her head behind your back!

²³ “Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice,
And lifted up your eyes on high?
Against the Holy One of Israel.
²⁴ By your servants you have reproached the Lord,
And said, ‘By the multitude of my chariots
I have come up to the height of the mountains,
To the limits of Lebanon;
I will cut down its tall cedars
And its choice cypress trees;
I will enter its farthest height,
To its fruitful forest.
²⁵ I have dug and drunk water,
And with the soles of my feet I have dried up
All the brooks of ^[b]defense.’

²⁶ “Did you not hear long ago
How I made it,
From ancient times that I formed it?
Now I have brought it to pass,
That you should be
For crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins.
²⁷ Therefore their inhabitants had little power;
They were dismayed and confounded;
They were as the grass of the field
And the green herb,
As the grass on the housetops
And grain blighted before it is grown.

²⁸ “But I know your dwelling place,
Your going out and your coming in,
And your rage against Me.
²⁹ Because your rage against Me and your tumult
Have come up to My ears,
Therefore I will put My hook in your nose
And My bridle in your lips,
And I will turn you back
By the way which you came.” ’

³⁰ “This shall be a sign to you:

You shall eat this year such as grows of itself,
And the second year what springs from the same;
Also in the third year sow and reap,
Plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.
³¹ And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah
Shall again take root downward,
And bear fruit upward.
³² For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant,
And those who escape from Mount Zion.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

³³ “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria:

‘He shall not come into this city,
Nor shoot an arrow there,
Nor come before it with shield,
Nor build a siege mound against it.
³⁴ By the way that he came,
By the same shall he return;
And he shall not come into this city,’
Says the Lord.
³⁵ ‘For I will defend this city, to save it
For My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’ ”

Sennacherib’s Defeat and Death

³⁶ Then the angel^[c] of the Lord went out, and ^[d]killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses—all dead. ³⁷ So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh. ³⁸ Now it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

Hezekiah’s Life Extended

38 In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’ ”

² Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, ³ and said, “Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a ^[e]loyal heart, and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴ And the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying, ⁵ “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will add to your days fifteen years. ⁶ I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city.” ’ ⁷ And this is the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing which He has spoken: ⁸ Behold, I will bring the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down with the sun on the sundial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward.” So the sun returned ten degrees on the dial by which it had gone down.

⁹ This is the writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:

¹⁰ I said,
“In the prime of my life
I shall go to the gates of Sheol;
I am deprived of the remainder of my years.”
¹¹ I said,
“I shall not see ^[f]Yah,
The Lord in the land of the living;
I shall observe man no more ^[g]among the inhabitants of ^[h]the world.
¹² My life span is gone,
Taken from me like a shepherd’s tent;
I have cut off my life like a weaver.
He cuts me off from the loom;
From day until night You make an end of me.
¹³ I have considered until morning—
Like a lion,
So He breaks all my bones;
From day until night You make an end of me.
¹⁴ Like a crane or a swallow, so I chattered;
I mourned like a dove;
My eyes fail from looking upward.
O ^[i]Lord, I am oppressed;
^[j]Undertake for me!

¹⁵ “What shall I say?
^[k]He has both spoken to me,
And He Himself has done it.
I shall walk carefully all my years
In the bitterness of my soul.
¹⁶ O Lord, by these things men live;
And in all these things is the life of my spirit;
So You will restore me and make me live.
¹⁷ Indeed it was for my own peace
That I had great bitterness;
But You have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of corruption,
For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.
¹⁸ For Sheol cannot thank You,
Death cannot praise You;
Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your truth.
¹⁹ The living, the living man, he shall praise You,
As I do this day;
The father shall make known Your truth to the children.

²⁰ “The Lord was ready to save me;
Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments
All the days of our life, in the house of the Lord.”

²¹ Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a lump of figs, and apply it as a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover.”

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

The Babylonian Envoys

39 At that time ^[l]Merodach-Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered. ² And Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them the house of his treasures—the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment, and all his armory—all that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.

³ Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say, and from where did they come to you?”

So Hezekiah said, “They came to me from a far country, from Babylon.”

⁴ And he said, “What have they seen in your house?”

So Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.”

⁵ Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord of hosts: ⁶ ‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,’ says the Lord. ⁷ ‘And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’ ”

⁸ So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good!” For he said, “At least there will be peace and truth in my days.”

Footnotes

1. Isaiah 37:3 contempt
2. Isaiah 37:25 Or perhaps Egypt
3. Isaiah 37:36 Or Angel
4. Isaiah 37:36 Lit. struck
5. Isaiah 38:3 whole or peaceful
6. Isaiah 38:11 Heb. Yah, Yah
7. Isaiah 38:11 LXX omits among the inhabitants of the world
8. Isaiah 38:11 So with some Heb. mss.; MT, Vg. rest; Tg. land
9. Isaiah 38:14 So with Bg.; MT, DSS Lord
10. Isaiah 38:14 Be my surety
11. Isaiah 38:15 So with MT, Vg.; DSS, Tg. And shall I say to Him; LXX omits first half of this verse
12. Isaiah 39:1 Berodach-Baladan, 2 Kin. 20:12