CHAPTER 37
On
hearing this report,
King
Hezekiah
tore
his clothes,
put on
sackcloth,
and entered
the house
of the LORD.
He sent
Eliakim
the palace
administrator,
Shebna
the scribe,
and the leading
priests,
all wearing
sackcloth,
to
the prophet
Isaiah
son
of Amoz
to tell
him,
“This is what
Hezekiah
says:
Today
is a day
of distress,
rebuke,
and disgrace;
for
children
have come
to the point of
birth,
but there is no
strength
to deliver them.
Perhaps
the LORD
your God
will hear
the words
of the Rab-shakeh,
whom
his master
the king
of Assyria
has sent
to defy
the living
God,
and He will rebuke him
for the words
that
the LORD
your God
has heard.
Therefore lift up
a prayer
for
the remnant
that still survives."
who
replied,
“Tell
your master
that this is what
the LORD
says:
‘Do not
be afraid
of
the words
you have heard,
with which
the servants
of the king
of Assyria
have blasphemed Me.
Behold,
I will put
a spirit
in him
so that he will hear
a rumor
and return
to
his own land,
where
I will cause him to fall
by the sword.’”
When
the Rab-shakeh
heard
that
the king of Assyria had left
Lachish,
he withdrew
and found
the king
fighting
against
Libnah.
Now Sennacherib had been warned
about
Tirhakah
king
of Cush:
“He has set out
to fight
against you.”
On hearing this,
Sennacherib sent
messengers
to
Hezekiah
with the order:
“Tell
Hezekiah
king
of Judah,
‘Do not
let your God,
in whom
you
trust,
deceive you
by promising
that Jerusalem
will not
be delivered
into the hand
of the king
of Assyria.
Surely
you
have heard
what
the kings
of Assyria
have done
to all the other
countries,
destroying them completely.
Will you then
be spared?
Did the gods
of the nations
my fathers
destroyed
rescue them—
the gods of
Gozan,
Haran,
Rezeph,
and the people
of Eden
in Telassar?
So Hezekiah
received
the letter
from
the messengers,
read it,
and went up
to the house
of the LORD
and spread it out
before
the LORD.
“O LORD
of Hosts,
God
of Israel,
enthroned
above the cherubim,
You
alone
are God
over all
the kingdoms
of the earth.
You
made
the heavens
and the earth.
Incline
Your ear,
O LORD,
and hear;
open
Your eyes,
O LORD,
and see.
Listen to
all
the words
that
Sennacherib
has sent
to defy
the living
God.
They have cast
their gods
into the fire
and destroyed them,
for
they
were not
gods,
but only
wood
and stone—
the work
of human
hands.
And now,
O LORD
our God,
deliver us
from his hand,
so that all
the kingdoms
of the earth
may know
that
You
alone,
O LORD, are God.”
Then Isaiah
son
of Amoz
sent a message
to
Hezekiah:
“This is what
the LORD,
the God
of Israel,
says:
Because
you prayed
to Me
concerning
Sennacherib
king
of Assyria,
this
is the word
that
the LORD
has spoken
against him:
‘The Virgin
Daughter
of Zion
despises
you
and mocks
you;
the Daughter
of Jerusalem
shakes
her head
behind you.
Whom
have you taunted
and blasphemed?
Against
whom
have you raised
your voice
and lifted
your eyes
in pride?
Against
the Holy One
of Israel!
Through
your servants
you have taunted
the Lord,
and you have said
“With my many
chariots
I
have ascended
to the heights
of the mountains,
to the far recesses
of Lebanon.
I have cut down
its tallest
cedars,
the finest
of its cypress trees.
I have reached
its farthest
heights,
the densest
of its forests.
I
have dug wells
and drunk foreign
waters.
With the soles
of my feet
I have dried up
all
the streams
of Egypt.”
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 should crush
fortified
cities
into piles
of rubble.
Therefore their inhabitants,
devoid
of power,
are dismayed
and ashamed.
They are
plants
of the field,
tender
green shoots,
grass
on the roofs,
scorched
before
it is grown.
Because
your rage
and arrogance
against Me
have reached
My ears,
I will put
My hook
in your nose
and My bit
in your mouth;
I will send you back
the way
you came.’
And this
will be a sign
to you, O Hezekiah:
This year
you will eat
what grows on its own,
and in the second
year
what springs from the same.
But in the third
year
you will sow
and reap;
you will plant
vineyards
and eat
their fruit.
For
a remnant
will go forth
from Jerusalem,
and survivors
from Mount
Zion.
The zeal
of the LORD
of Hosts
will accomplish
this.
So
this is what
the LORD
says
about
the king
of Assyria:
‘He will not
enter
this
city
or shoot
an arrow
into it.
He will not come before it
with a shield
or build up
a siege ramp
against it.
Then the angel
of the LORD
went out
and struck down
185,000 men
in the camp
of the Assyrians.
When the people got up
the next morning,
there
were all
the dead
bodies!
So Sennacherib
king
of Assyria
broke camp
and withdrew.
He returned home
to Nineveh
and stayed there.
One day,
while he
was worshiping
in the temple
of his god
Nisroch,
his sons
Adrammelech
and Sharezer
struck him down
with the sword
and escaped
to the land
of Ararat.
And his son
Esar-haddon
became king
in his place.