Hezekiah’s Prayer, the Deliverance of Jerusalem, and the Warning Against Pride
Isaiah 37
1 When King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into Yahweh’s house.
2 He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.
3 They said to him, “Hezekiah says, ‘Today is a day of trouble, of rebuke, and of rejection; for children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to deliver them.
4 It may be Yahweh your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’”
5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
6 Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘Yahweh says, “Don’t be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he will hear news, and will return to his own land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.”’”
8 So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah; for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish.
9 He heard news concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “He has come out to fight against you.” When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
10 “You shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem won’t be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”
11 Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly. Will you be delivered?
12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar?
13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?’”
14 Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. Hezekiah went up to Yahweh’s house and spread it before Yahweh.
15 Hezekiah prayed to Yahweh, saying,
16 “Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, who sits above the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.
17 Turn your ear, Yahweh, and hear. Open your eyes, Yahweh, and see. Hear all the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to defy the living God.
18 Truly, Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the countries and their land,
19 and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they have destroyed them.
20 Now therefore, Yahweh our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are Yahweh, even you only.”
21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘Because you have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria,
22 this is the word which Yahweh has spoken concerning him: The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.
23 Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel!
24 By your servants, you have defied the Lord, and have said, “With the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon. I will cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypress trees. I will enter into its farthest height, the forest of its fruitful field.
25 I have dug and drunk water, and with the sole of my feet I will dry up all the rivers of Egypt.”
26 “‘Have you not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it in ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be yours to lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps.
27 Therefore their inhabitants had little power. They were dismayed and confounded. They were as the grass of the field and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops and as a field before it has grown up.
28 But I know your sitting down, your going out, your coming in, and your raging against me.
29 Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance has come up into my ears, therefore I will put my hook in your nose and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came.
30 “‘This shall be the sign to you: You will eat this year what grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs from the same; and in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.
31 The remnant that has escaped of the house of Judah will again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
32 For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go out, and out of Mount Zion those who will escape. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform this.’
33 “Therefore Yahweh says concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there. He will not come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it.
34 By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he will not come to this city,’ says Yahweh.
35 ‘For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.’”
36 Yahweh’s angel went out and struck one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, went away, returned to Nineveh, and stayed there.
38 As he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.
Isaiah 38
1 In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him, “Yahweh says, ‘Set your house in order, for you will die, and not live.’”
2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh,
3 and said, “Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your eyes.” Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4 Then Yahweh’s word came to Isaiah, saying,
5 “Go, and tell Hezekiah, ‘Yahweh, the God of David your father, says, “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.
6 I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city.
7 This shall be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this thing that he has spoken:
8 Behold, I will cause the shadow on the steps, which has gone down on the sundial of Ahaz with the sun, to return backward ten steps.”’” So the sun returned ten steps on the steps on which it had gone down.
9 The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:
10 I said, “In the middle of my life I will go into the gates of Sheol. I am deprived of the residue of my years.”
11 I said, “I won’t see Yah, Yah in the land of the living. I will see man no more with the inhabitants of the world.
12 My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up my life like a weaver. He will cut me off from the loom. From day even to night you will make an end of me.
13 I waited patiently until morning. He breaks all my bones like a lion. From day even to night you will make an end of me.
14 I chattered like a swallow or a crane. I moaned like a dove. My eyes fail looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed. Be my security.”
15 What will I say? He has both spoken to me, and himself has done it. I will walk carefully all my years because of the anguish of my soul.
16 Lord, men live by these things; and my spirit finds life in all of them. You restore me, and cause me to live.
17 Behold, it was for my peace that I had great anguish, but you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all my sins behind your back.
18 For Sheol can’t praise you. Death can’t celebrate you. Those who go down into the pit can’t hope for your truth.
19 The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do today. The father shall make known your truth to the children.
20 Yahweh will save me. Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life in Yahweh’s house.
21 Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover.”
22 Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I will go up to Yahweh’s house?”
Isaiah 39
1 At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he had heard that he had been sick and had recovered.
2 Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah didn’t show them.
3 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and asked him, “What did these men say? From where did they come to you?” Hezekiah said, “They have come to me from a far country, even from Babylon.”
4 Then he asked, “What have they seen in your house?” Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.”
5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of Yahweh of Armies:
6 ‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left,’ says Yahweh.
7 ‘They will take away some of your sons who will issue from you, whom you will father; and they will be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”
8 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “Yahweh’s word which you have spoken is good.” He said moreover, “For there will be peace and truth in my days.”
Scripture: World English Bible (WEB), public domain.
