< Isaiah 37 >
1 And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord.
2 And he sent Elyakim, who was superintendent over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the son of Amoz, the prophet.
3 And they said unto him, Thus hath said Hezekiah, A day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of derision is this day; for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.
4 Perhaps the Lord thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to blaspheme the living God, and who hath reproached with the words which the Lord thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up a prayer for the remnant that is still found here.
5 And the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
6 And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say unto your master, Thus hath said the Lord, Be not afraid because of the words which thou hast heard, with which the boys of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
7 Behold, I will put an [other] spirit in him, and when he will hear a rumor, he shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
8 And Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah; for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.
9 And he heard it said of Thirhakah the king of Ethiopia, He is come out to fight with thee. And when he had heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
10 Thus shall ye say to Hezekiah the king of Judah, as followeth, Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given up into the hand of the king of Assyria.
11 Behold, thou thyself hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands by destroying them utterly: and thou alone shouldst be delivered?
12 Have the gods of the nations which my fathers destroyed delivered them, as Gozan, and Charan, and Rezeph, and the children of 'Eden, who were in Thelassar?
13 Where is the king of Chamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvayim, of Hena', and 'Ivvah?
14 And Hezekiah took the letter out of the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up unto the house of the Lord, and spread it out before the Lord.
15 And Hezekiah prayed unto the Lord, saying,
16 O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, who dwellest between the cherubim, thou art the [true] God, thou alone, for all the kingdoms of the earth; [for] it is thou who hast made the heavens and earth.
17 Bend down, O Lord, thy ear, and hear; open, O Lord, thy eye, and see: and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he hath sent to blaspheme the living God.
18 Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have devastated all the nations, and their land;
19 And they have placed their gods into the fire; for they are no gods, but the work of man's hands, wood and stone; and these have they destroyed.
20 And now, O Lord our God, save us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord, thou alone.
21 Then sent Isaiah the son of Amoz unto Hezekiah, saying, Thus hath said the Lord the God of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to me concerning Sennacherib the king of Assyria:
22 This is the word that the Lord hath spoken over him: She despiseth thee, she laugheth thee to scorn, the virgin daughter of Zion; behind she shaketh her head, the daughter of Jerusalem.
23 Whom hast thou blasphemed, and [whom] hast thou scorned? and against whom hast thou raised thy voice, and lifted up thy eyes on high? against the Holy One of Israel.
24 Through thy servants hast thou blasphemed the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots am I indeed come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon; and I will cut down its tall cedars, the choice of its fir-trees: and I will enter into the height of its summit, the forest of its fruitful soil.
25 I have dug, and drunk water; and I will dry up with the sole of my feet all the streams of besieged places.
26 Hadst thou not heard, that in distant ages I had prepared this? in the times of antiquity when I formed it? now have I brought it along, and it came to pass to desolate into ruinous heaps fortified cities.
27 And thus their inhabitants were of short power, they were discouraged and confounded: they were as the herbs of the field, and as the green grass; as the moss on the housetops, and as corn blasted before the ear appeareth.
28 But thy abiding, and thy going out, and thy coming in do I know, and thy raging against me.
29 Because of thy raging against me, and thy tumult, that is come up into my ears, will I put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle between thy lips, and I will cause thee to turn back on the way by which thou camest.
30 And this shall be unto thee the sign, Ye shall eat this year what groweth of itself, and in the second year what springeth after the same; and in the third year sow, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.
31 And the remnant of the house of Judah that is escaped shall yet strike root downward, and bear fruit upward.
32 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and that which escapeth out of Mount Zion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
33 Therefore thus hath said the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, and he shall not shoot an arrow thereon, nor come before it with shields, nor cast up an embankment against it.
34 On the way by which he came, by the same shall he return, and into this city shall he not come, saith the Lord.
35 And I will shield this city to save it for my own sake, and for the sake of David my servant.
36 Then went out an angel of the Lord, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty and five thousand men; and when people arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
37 And Sennacherib the king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.
38 And it came to pass, as he was prostrating himself in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Essar-chaddon his son became king in his stead.
