< Isaiah 37 >
1 And when the king, Hezekiah, heard it, he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of Jehovah.
2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the palace, and 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 saith Hezekiah: This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of contempt; for the children have come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.
4 It may be that Jehovah, thy God, will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria, his master, hath sent to reproach the living God, and to revile him with the words which Jehovah, thy God, hath heard. Do thou, therefore, lift up thy prayer for the remnant of the people, that is yet left.
5 And the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
6 And Isaiah said to them, Thus shall ye say to your master: Thus saith Jehovah: Be not afraid on account of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
7 Behold, I will put a spirit within him, so that 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.
8 Then Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish.
9 Then he heard concerning Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, that it was said, “He is come forth to war against thee.” And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah and said,
10 Thus shall ye say to Hezekiah, the king of Judah: Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
11 Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands; how they have utterly destroyed them. And shalt thou be delivered?
12 Did the gods of the nations which my father destroyed, deliver them? Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden in Telassar?
13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Henah, and of Ivah?
14 And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it. Then he went up to the house of Jehovah, and spread it before Jehovah.
15 And Hezekiah prayed before Jehovah, saying,
16 O Jehovah of hosts, God of Israel, who sittest between the cherubs, thou alone art the God of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth.
17 Incline thine ear, O Jehovah, and hear; open thine eyes, O Jehovah, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he hath sent to reproach the living God.
18 In truth, O Jehovah, the kings of Assyria have destroyed 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; and they have destroyed them.
20 But do thou, O Jehovah, our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou alone art Jehovah.
21 Then Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: Whereas thou hast prayed to me on account of Sennacherib, the king of Assyria,
22 This is the word which Jehovah hath spoken against him. The virgin, the daughter of Zion, despiseth thee; she laugheth thee to scorn; The daughter of Jerusalem shaketh her head after thee.
23 Whom hast thou reproached, and reviled, And against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, And lifted up thine eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel.
24 By thy servants hast thou reproached the Lord, and said: “With the multitude of my chariots have I ascended the heights of the mountains, the extremities of Lebanon; I have cut down its tall cedars, and its choice cypress-trees; I have come to its utmost height, to its garden forest.
25 I have digged and drunk water, And with the sole of my feet will I dry up all the rivers of Egypt.”
26 Hast thou not heard, that of old I ordained it, And from ancient times purposed it? Now have I brought it to pass, That thou shouldst convert fortified cities into ruinous heaps.
27 Therefore were their inhabitants of little strength; They were dismayed and confounded; They were as the grass of the field, and the green herb; As grass upon the house-top, and as corn blasted, before it is grown up.
28 I know thy sitting down, thy going out, and thy coming in, And thy rage against me.
29 Because thy rage against me, and thy insolence, is come up into my ears, I will put my ring into thy nose, And my bridle into thy lips, And turn thee back by the way in which thou camest.
30 And this shall be the sign to thee; Eat this year that which groweth of itself, And in the second year that which groweth of itself, And in the third year ye shall sow and reap, And plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof.
31 And the remnant of the house of Judah, that have escaped, Shall again strike root downward, And bear fruit upward.
32 For from Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, And they that have escaped from mount Zion. The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform this.
33 Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts concerning the king of Assyria; He shall not come into this city, Nor shoot an arrow into it; He shall not present a shield before it, Nor cast up a mound against it.
34 By the way in which he came, by the same shall he return, And into this city shall he not come, saith Jehovah.
35 For I will defend this city, and deliver it, For mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.
36 Then an angel of Jehovah went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand men; and when the people arose early in the morning, behold they were all dead corpses.
37 Then Sennacherib, king of Assyria, decamped, and went away, and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.
38 And as he was worshipping in the temple of Nisroch, his god, he was slain with the sword by his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer, who escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon, his son, reigned in his stead.
