CHAPTER 37

1 Now, it came to pass, that Hezekiah, when he heard this rent his clothes, And covered himself with sackcloth, And went into the house of Jehovah.

2 At the same time he sent Eliakim, who was over the palace, And Shebna the chancellor, and the eldest of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the son of Amoz, the prophet.

3 Who said to him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, And of blasphemy; for the children have come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.

4 If, perhaps, Jehovah thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master, the king of Assyria, hath sent to curse the living God, And to rebuke with words which Jehovah thy God hath heard. Thou shalt therefore lift up a prayer for the remnant that is still left.

5 The servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

6 And Isaiah said to them, Thus shall ye say to your master: Thus saith Jehovah, Fear not the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reproached me.

7 Behold, I will bring a wind upon him; for he shall hear a report, And shall return to his own land; And I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.

8 And Rabshakeh, having returned, found the king of Assyria besieging Libnah; for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.

9 And hearing concerning Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, He hath gone out to fight against thee; after having heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying:

10 Thus shall ye say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given up into the hand of the king of Assyria.

11 Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to at hands, how they have destroyed them; And shalt thou be delivered?

12 Have the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers destroyed, Gozan, And Itaran, And Rezeph, And the children of Edom, who were in Telassar?

13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arphad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena And Iva?

14 Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, And read it, And went up to the house of Jehovah, and spread it before Jehovah.

15 Then Hezekiah prayed to God, saying:

16 O Jehovah of hosts, God of Israel, who dwellest between the cherubim, thou alone art God over 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, who hath sent to reproach the living God.

18 Truly, O Jehovah, the kings of Assyria have destroyed all the nations, And their land,

19 And have cast their gods into the fire; for they were not gods, but the work of men's hands, wood, And stone; therefore they have destroyed them.

20 And now, 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, Since thou hast prayed to me concerning Sennacherib, king of Assyria;

22 This is the word which Jehovah hath spoken concerning him: The virgin daughter of Zion hath despised thee, hath laughed at thee; The daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee. Whom hast thou reproached?

23 And whom hast thou blasphemed? Against whom hast thou exalted thy Voice, And lifted up thy hands on high? Even against the Holy One of Israel.

24 By the hand of thy servants thou hast reproached the Lord, And hast said, By the multitude of my chariots I will go up, To the heights of the mountains, To the sides of Lebanon; I will cut down the tallest of her cedars, Her choice firs; Then will I come to the height of his border, And even to his level forest. ¹

25 I will dig, And will drink waters; With the sole of my feet I will dry up all the lakes of the siege.

26 Hast thou not heard that I made it long ago, That I formed it from ancient days? And should I now bring it to be a desolation, To be heaps of ruins, like fortified cities?

27 For their inhabitants were maimed, Were terrified And confounded; They were made like the grass of the field And the green herb, Like the grass of the house-tops, which withereth before it is ripe.

28 I know thy sitting down, And thy going out, And thy entrance, And thy indignation against me.

29 Because thou wast angry against me, Thy tumult hath come up into my ears. Therefore will I put my hook ² in thy nostril, And my bridle ill thy lips, And will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.

30 And this shall be a sign to thee; Thou shalt eat this year that which groweth of itself, And in the second year that which springeth up of itself; And in the third year ye shall sow And reap, And shall plant vineyards, And eat the fruit of them.

31 And that which shall be preserved of the house of Judah, And that which shall be left, Shall vet strike root downward, And shall bear fruit upward.

32 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, And that which shall be preserved of Mount Zion. The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will do this.

33 Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not enter into this city, Nor throw an arrow into it; And he who is defended by a shield shall not seize it, Nor cast a balister against it.

34 By the way that he came shall he return, And shall not enter into this city, saith Jehovah.

35 And I will be a protector to this city, To save it, for my own sake, And for the sake of my servant David.

36 And the angel of Jehovah went forth, And smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred And eighty-five thousand; And when the people arose early in the morning, behold, they were all corpses of dead men.

37 Then Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed, And went, And returned, And dwelt in Nineveh.

38 And it came to pass, while he was worshipping his god in the temple of Nisroch, ³ that his sons, Adrammeleeh And Sharezar, smote him with the sword, And fled into the land of Armenia; And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.