(Isaiah 37:1–7)
1
And when king Hezekiah had heard this, he tore his garments, and he covered himself with sackcloth, and he entered the house of the Lord.
2
And he sent Eliakim, the first ruler of the house, and Shebnah, the scribe, and the elders from the priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz.
3
And they said to him: “Thus says Hezekiah: This day is a day of tribulation, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy. The sons are ready to be born, but the woman in labor does not have the strength.
4
Perhaps the Lord, your God, may hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of the Assyrians, his lord, sent so that he would reproach the living God, and rebuke with words, which the Lord, your God, has heard. And so, offer a prayer on behalf of the remnant that has been found.”
5
And the servants of king Hezekiah went to Isaiah.
6
And Isaiah said to them: “So shall you say to your lord. Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid before the face of the words that you have heard, by which the servants of the king of the Assyrians have blasphemed me.
7
Behold, I will send a spirit to him, and he will hear a report, and he will return to his own land. And I will bring him down by the sword in his own land.”
Sennacherib’s Blasphemous Letter
(Isaiah 37:8–13)
8
Then Rabshakeh returned, and he found the king of the Assyrians fighting against Libnah. For he had heard that he had withdrawn from Lachish.
9
And when he had heard from Tirhakah, the king of Ethiopia, saying, “Behold, he has gone out so that he may fight against you,” and when he went forth against him, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying:
10
“So shall you say to Hezekiah, the king of Judah: Let not your God, in whom you trust, lead you astray. And you should not say, ‘Jerusalem will not be delivered into the hands of the king of the Assyrians.’
11
For you yourself have heard what the kings of the Assyrians have done to all the lands, the manner in which they have laid waste to them. Therefore, how would you alone be able to be freed?
12
Have the gods of the nations freed any of those whom my fathers have destroyed, such as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the sons of Eden, who were at Telassar?
13
Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena, and of Avva?”
Hezekiah’s Prayer
(Isaiah 37:14–20)
14
And so, when Hezekiah had received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and had read it, he ascended to the house of the Lord, and he spread it out before the Lord.
15
And he prayed in his sight, saying: “O Lord, God of Israel, who sits upon the cherubim, you alone are God, over all the kings of the earth. You made heaven and earth.
16
Incline your ear, and listen. Open your eyes, O Lord, and see. And hear all the words of Sennacherib, who sent so that he might reproach the living God before us.
17
Truly, O Lord, the kings of the Assyrians have devastated all peoples and lands.
18
And they have cast their gods into the fire. For they were not gods, but instead were the works of men’s hands, out of wood and stone. And so they destroyed them.
19
Now therefore, O Lord our God, bring us salvation from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord God.”
Sennacherib’s Fall Prophesied
(Isaiah 37:21–35)
20
Then Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, saying: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I have heard what you beseeched from me, concerning Sennacherib, the king of the Assyrians.
21
This is the word that the Lord has spoken about him: The virgin daughter of Zion has spurned and ridiculed you. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head behind your back.
22
Whom have you reproached, and whom have you blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice, and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel!
23
By the hand of your servants, you have reproached the Lord, and you have said: ‘By the multitude of my chariots I have ascended to the heights of the mountains, to the summit of Lebanon. And I have cut down its sublime cedars, and its elect spruce trees. And I have entered even to its limits. And its forest of Carmel,(a)
24
I have cut down. And I drank foreign waters, and I dried up all the enclosed waters with the steps of my feet.’
25
But have you not heard what I have done from the beginning? From the days of antiquity, I have formed it, and now I have brought it to be. And fortified cities of fighting men will become piles of ruins.(b) (c)
26
And whoever may settle in these, they have trembled, with a weak hand, and they have been confounded. They have become like the hay of the field, and like weeds sprouting on the rooftops, which dry up before they reached maturity.(d)
27
Your habitation, and your exit, and your entrance, and your way, I knew beforehand, along with your fury against me.
28
You have been maddened against me, and your arrogance has ascended to my ears. And so, I will place a ring in your nose, and a bit between your lips. And I will lead you back along the way by which you came.
29
But as for you, Hezekiah, this shall be a sign: Eat this year whatever you will find, and in the second year, whatever may spring up of itself. But in the third year, sow and reap; plant vineyards, and eat from their fruit.
30
And whatever will have been left behind, from the house of Judah, shall send a root downward, and shall bear fruit upward.
31
Indeed, a remnant shall go forth from Jerusalem, and what may be saved shall go forth from mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall accomplish this.
32
For this reason, thus says the Lord about the king of the Assyrians: He shall not enter into this city, nor shoot an arrow into it, nor overtake it with the shield, nor encircle it with fortifications.
33
By the way that he came, so shall he return. And he shall not enter this city, says the Lord.
34
And I will protect this city, and I will save it for my own sake, and for the sake of my servant David.”
Jerusalem Delivered from the Assyrians
(2 Chronicles 32:20–23; Isaiah 37:36–38)
35
And so it happened that, in the same night, an Angel of the Lord went and struck down, in the camp of the Assyrians, one hundred and eighty-five thousand. And when he had risen up, at first light, he saw all the bodies of the dead. And withdrawing, he went away.
36
And Sennacherib, the king of the Assyrians, returned and dwelled in Nineveh.
37
And while he was worshipping in the temple of his god, Nisroch, his sons, Adram-melech and Sharezer, struck him with the sword. And they fled into the land of the Armenians. And Esarhaddon, his son, reigned in his place.
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