Isaiah 37 — Legacy Standard Bible

Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah’s Help

37Now it happened that ^awhen King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and entered the house of Yahweh. ²Then he sent ^aEliakim, who was over the household with ^bShebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to ^cIsaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. ³And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a ^aday of distress, reproof, and rejection; for ^bchildren have come to the point of breaking forth, but there is no strength to give birth. ⁴‘Perhaps Yahweh your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to ¹^,^areproach the living God, and will reprove the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore, lift up a prayer for ^bthe remnant that is left.’”

⁵So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. ⁶And Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says Yahweh, “^aDo not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. ⁷“Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will ^ahear a report and ^breturn to his own land. And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.”’”

⁸Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against ^aLibnah, for he had heard that ¹the king had set out from ^bLachish. ⁹Then he ^aheard them say concerning Tirhakah king of ¹^,^bEthiopia, “He has come out to fight against you.” So he heard it and sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰“Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of ¹Judah, ‘^aDo not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ¹¹‘^aBehold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, devoting them to destruction. So will you be delivered? ¹²‘Did the gods of ¹those nations, which my fathers have brought to ruin, deliver them, even ^aGozan and ^bHaran and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar? ¹³‘Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah?’”

Hezekiah’s Prayer in the Temple

¹⁴Then Hezekiah took the ¹letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of Yahweh and ²spread it out before Yahweh. ¹⁵And Hezekiah prayed to Yahweh saying, ¹⁶“O Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, ^awho is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the ^bGod, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. ^cYou have made heaven and earth. ¹⁷“^aIncline Your ear, O Yahweh, and hear; open Your eyes, O Yahweh, and see; and ^blisten to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to ¹^,^creproach the living God. ¹⁸“Truly, O Yahweh, the ^akings of Assyria have laid waste to all the countries and their lands ¹⁹and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the ^awork of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have ^bdestroyed them. ²⁰“But now, O Yahweh our God, ^asave us from his hand that ^ball the kingdoms of the earth may know that ¹You are Yahweh, You alone.”

Yahweh’s Answer Through Isaiah

²¹Then ^aIsaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, ²²this is the word that Yahweh has spoken against him: “She has despised you and mocked you,The ^avirgin ^bdaughter of Zion;She has ^cshaken her head behind you,The daughter of Jerusalem!

²³“Whom have you ¹^,^areproached and blasphemed?And against whom have you heightened your voiceAnd ²haughtily ^blifted up your eyes?Against the ^cHoly One of Israel!²⁴“Through your servants you have ¹reproached the Lord,And you have said, ‘With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains,To the remotest parts of ^aLebanon;And I cut down its tall ^bcedars and its choice cypresses.And I will go to its ²highest peak, its thickest ^cforest.²⁵‘I dug wells and drank waters,And ^awith the sole of my feet I dried upAll the rivers of ¹Egypt.’²⁶“^aHave you not heard?Long ago I did it;From days of old I ^bformed it.Now ^cI have brought it to pass,That ^dyou should devastate fortified cities into ^eruinous heaps.²⁷“So their inhabitants were short of power;They were dismayed and put to shame;They were as the ^aplant of the field and as the green herb,As ^bgrass on the rooftops ¹is scorched before it rises.²⁸“But I ^aknow your sitting downAnd your going out and your coming inAnd your raging against Me.²⁹“Because of your raging against MeAnd because your ¹^,^apresumptuousness has come up to My ears,Therefore I will put My ^bhook in your noseAnd My ^cbridle in your lips,And I will turn you back ^dby the way which you came.

³⁰“Then this shall be the sign for you: ¹you will eat this year what ^agrows of its own accord, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. ³¹“And the ^asurviving ^bremnant of the house of Judah will again ^ctake root downward and bear fruit upward. ³²“For out of Jerusalem will go forth a ^aremnant and out of Mount Zion ¹survivors. The ^bzeal of Yahweh of hosts will do this.”’

³³“Therefore, thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield or throw up a ^asiege ramp against it. ³⁴‘^aBy the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he will not come to this city,’ declares Yahweh. ³⁵‘Indeed I will ^adefend this city to save it ^bfor My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’”

The Defeat and Death of Sennacherib

³⁶Then the ^aangel of Yahweh went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And ¹the men arose early in the morning, and behold, all of them were dead bodies. ³⁷So Sennacherib king of Assyria set out and ¹returned home and lived at ^aNineveh. ³⁸Now it happened that as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of ^aArarat. And ^bEsarhaddon his son became king in his place.