37:1 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the LORD.
37:2 He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.
37:3 They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the point of birth and there is no strength to deliver them.
37:4 It may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the living God, and that he will rebuke him for the words the LORD your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant that still survives.”
37:5 When King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah,
37:6 Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘This is what the LORD says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard–those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
37:7 Listen! I am going to put a spirit in him so that when he hears a certain report, he will return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.’”
37:8 When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.
37:9 Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the Cushite king of Egypt, was marching out to fight against him. When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word:
37:10 “Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.’
37:11 Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered?
37:12 Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my forefathers deliver them–the gods of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar?
37:13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, or of Hena or Ivvah?”
37:14 Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD.
37:15 And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD:
37:16 “O LORD Almighty, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.
37:17 Give ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God.
37:18 “It is true, O LORD, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands.
37:19 They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands.
37:20 Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O LORD, are God.”
37:21 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria,
37:22 this is the word the LORD has spoken against him: “The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises and mocks you. The Daughter of Jerusalem tosses her head as you flee.
37:23 Who is it you have insulted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel!
37:24 By your messengers you have heaped insults on the Lord. And you have said, ‘With my many chariots I have ascended the heights of the mountains, the utmost heights of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the choicest of its pines. I have reached its remotest heights, the finest of its forests.
37:25 I have dug wells in foreign lands and drunk the water there. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.’
37:26 “Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In days of old I planned it; now I have brought it to pass, that you have turned fortified cities into piles of stone.
37:27 Their people, drained of power, are dismayed and put to shame. They are like plants in the field, like tender green shoots, like grass sprouting on the roof, scorched before it grows up.
37:28 “But I know where you stay and when you come and go and how you rage against me.
37:29 Because you rage against me and because your insolence has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will make you return by the way you came.
37:30 “This will be the sign for you, O Hezekiah: “This year you will eat what grows by itself, and the second year what springs from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
37:31 Once more a remnant of the house of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above.
37:32 For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.
37:33 “Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning the king of Assyria: “He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it.
37:34 By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city,” declares the LORD.
37:35 “I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!”
37:36 Then the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning–there were all the dead bodies!
37:37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.
37:38 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer cut him down with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.
37:1 And when King Hezekiah heard, he tore his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of Jehovah.
37:2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, who had covered themselves in sackcloth, to Isaiah the son of Amoz, the prophet.
37:3 And they said to him, Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of affliction, rebuke, and contempt, for children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth.
37:4 It may be that Jehovah your God will hear the words of the Rab-shakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which Jehovah your God has heard. Therefore lift up a prayer for the remnant which is left.
37:5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
37:6 And Isaiah said to them, Thus you shall say to your master, Thus says Jehovah, Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me.
37:7 Indeed I will put a spirit in him, so that he will hear a report and return to his land. And I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
37:8 And the Rab-shakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, because he had heard that the king had departed from Lachish.
37:9 And he heard a report about Tirhakah the king of Ethiopia which said, He has come forth to make war with you. And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
37:10 In this way you shall speak to Hezekiah the king of Judah, saying, Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem will not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
37:11 Indeed you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them utterly. And will you be delivered?
37:12 Have the gods of the nations, whom my fathers destroyed, delivered them: Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the children of Eden, who were in Telassar?
37:13 Where are the king of Hamath and the king of Arpad and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena and Ivvah?
37:14 And Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and Hezekiah went up to the house of Jehovah and spread it before Jehovah.
37:15 And Hezekiah prayed to Jehovah, saying,
37:16 O Jehovah of hosts, God of Israel, You who are enthroned between the cherubim, You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth; You made the heavens and the earth.
37:17 Incline Your ear, O Jehovah, and hear; open Your eyes, O Jehovah, and see; and listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who has sent messengers to reproach the living God.
37:18 Truly, O Jehovah, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the countries and their land,
37:19 And have cast their gods into the fire, because they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone; so they destroyed them.
37:20 And now, O Jehovah our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone are Jehovah.
37:21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah, saying, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, Because you have prayed to Me concerning Sennacherib the king of Assyria,
37:22 This is the word which Jehovah has spoken concerning him: The virgin daughter of Zion / Has despised you and laughed at you; / The daughter of Jerusalem / Has shaken her head behind you.
37:23 Whom have you reproached and reviled? / Against whom have you lifted up your voice / And lifted up your eyes haughtily? / Against the Holy One of Israel.
37:24 By your servants you have reproached the Lord, / And you have said, In the multitude of my chariots, / I have come up to the heights of the mountains, / To the sides of Lebanon. / And I will cut down its tall cedars, / And the choicest of its cypresses: / I will enter into its farthest height / And its luxuriant forest.
37:25 I have dug; / I have drunk water; / With the sole of my foot I have dried up / All the rivers of Egypt.
37:26 Have you not heard / That long ago I did it; / And from the days of old I had formed it? / Now I have brought it to pass, / That you should destroy fortified cities, / And make them into ruinous heaps.
37:27 Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength; / They were dismayed and felt ashamed; / And they were like vegetation of the field / And green shoots of tender grass, / Like grass which grows on the housetops / And is scorched before it has grown up.
37:28 But I know your sitting down, / And your going out and your coming in, / And your raging against Me.
37:29 Because your raging against Me / And your arrogance has come up into My ears, / I will put My hook in your nose / And My bridle in your lips, / And turn you back on the way by which you came.
37:30 This shall be the sign to you: This year you shall eat that which grows up of itself, and the second year that which shoots up from the same, and in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
37:31 And the remnant of those who have escaped of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward.
37:32 For a remnant will go forth out of Jerusalem, and from Mount Zion those who have escaped. The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform this.
37:33 Therefore, thus says Jehovah concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come to this city, / Nor shoot an arrow there; / Neither shall he come against it with shields, / And build up a mound against it.
37:34 By the way on which he came, / By the same shall he return, / And into this city he shall not come, / Declares Jehovah.
37:35 And around this city I will put an enclosure / To save it, / For My own sake / And for the sake of David, My servant.
37:36 Then the angel of Jehovah went out and struck the Assyrians’ camp, a hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when they arose early in the morning, all of them were corpses, dead.
37:37 Then Sennacherib the king of Assyria departed and went back to dwell in Nineveh.
37:38 And when he was worshipping in the house of his god Nisroch, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons slew him with the sword; and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.