Isaiah 37 - Prayer Tents

Hezekiah Seeks the Lord’s Help

37When King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes and put on burlap and went into the Temple of the Lord.H4428H2396H8085H7167H899H3680H8242H935H1004H3068 2And he sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the court secretary, and the leading priests, all dressed in burlap, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.H7971H471H1004H7644H5608H2205H3548H3680H8242H3470H5030H1121H531 3They told him, “This is what King Hezekiah says: Today is a day of trouble, insults, and disgrace. It is like when a child is ready to be born, but the mother has no strength to deliver the baby.H559H559H2396H3117H3117H6869H8433H5007H1121H935H4866H3581H3205 4But perhaps the Lord your God has heard the Assyrian chief of staff, sent by the king to defy the living God, and will punish him for his words. Oh, pray for those of us who are left!”H3068H430H8085H1697H7262H4428H804H113H7971H2778H2416H430H3198H1697H3068H430H8085H5375H8605H7611H4672 5After King Hezekiah’s officials delivered the king’s message to Isaiah,H5650H4428H2396H935H3470 6the prophet replied, “Say to your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not be disturbed by this blasphemous speech against me from the Assyrian king’s messengers.H3470H559H559H113H559H3068H3372H6440H1697H8085H5288H4428H804H1442 7Listen! I myself will move against him, and the king will receive a message that he is needed at home. So he will return to his land, where I will have him killed with a sword.’”H5414H7307H8085H8052H7725H776H5307H2719H776 8Meanwhile, the Assyrian chief of staff left Jerusalem and went to consult the king of Assyria, who had left Lachish and was attacking Libnah.H7262H7725H4672H4428H804H3898H3841H8085H5265H3923 9Soon afterward King Sennacherib received word that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia was leading an army to fight against him. Before leaving to meet the attack, he sent messengers back to Hezekiah in Jerusalem with this message.H8085H559H8640H4428H3568H3318H3898H8085H7971H4397H2396H559 10“This message is for King Hezekiah of Judah. Don’t let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you with promises that Jerusalem will not be captured by the king of Assyria.H559H2396H4428H3063H559H430H982H5377H559H3389H5414H3027H4428H804 11You know perfectly well what the kings of Assyria have done wherever they have gone. They have completely destroyed everyone who stood in their way! Why should you be any different?H8085H4428H804H6213H776H2763H5337 12Have the gods of other nations rescued them—such nations as Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Tel-assar? My predecessors destroyed them all!H430H1471H5337H1H7843H1470H2771H7530H1121H5729H8515 13What happened to the king of Hamath and the king of Arpad? What happened to the kings of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?”H4428H2574H4428H774H4428H5892H5617H2012H5755 14After Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it, he went up to the Lord’s Temple and spread it out before the Lord.H2396H3947H5612H3027H4397H7121H2396H5927H1004H3068H6566H6440H3068 15And Hezekiah prayed this prayer before the Lord:H2396H6419H3068H559 16“O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, God of Israel, you are enthroned between the mighty cherubim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You alone created the heavens and the earth.H3068H6635H430H3478H3427H3742H430H4467H776H6213H8064H776 17Bend down, O Lord, and listen! Open your eyes, O Lord, and see! Listen to Sennacherib’s words of defiance against the living God.H5186H241H3068H8085H6491H5869H3068H7200H8085H1697H5576H7971H2778H2416H430 18“It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all these nations.H551H3068H4428H804H2717H776H776 19And they have thrown the gods of these nations into the fire and burned them. But of course the Assyrians could destroy them! They were not gods at all—only idols of wood and stone shaped by human hands.H5414H430H784H430H4639H120H3027H6086H68H6 20Now, O Lord our God, rescue us from his power; then all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you alone, O Lord, are God.”H3068H430H3467H3027H4467H776H3045H3068

Isaiah Predicts Judah’s Deliverance

21Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Because you prayed about King Sennacherib of Assyria,H3470H1121H531H7971H2396H559H559H3068H430H3478H6419H5576H4428H804 22the Lord has spoken this word against him. “The virgin daughter of Zion despises you and laughs at you. The daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head in derision as you flee.H1697H3068H1696H1330H1323H6726H959H3932H1323H3389H5128H7218H310 23“Whom have you been defying and ridiculing? Against whom did you raise your voice? At whom did you look with such haughty eyes? It was the Holy One of Israel!H2778H1442H7311H6963H5375H5869H4791H6918H3478 24By your messengers you have defied the Lord. You have said, ‘With my many chariots I have conquered the highest mountains—yes, the remotest peaks of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars and its finest cypress trees. I have reached its farthest heights and explored its deepest forests.H3027H5650H2778H136H559H7230H7393H5927H4791H2022H3411H3844H3772H6967H730H4005H1265H935H4791H7093H3293H3760 25I have dug wells in many foreign lands and refreshed myself with their water. With the sole of my foot, I stopped up all the rivers of Egypt!’H6979H8354H4325H3709H6471H2717H2975H4693 26“But have you not heard? I decided this long ago. Long ago I planned it, and now I am making it happen. I planned for you to crush fortified cities into heaps of rubble.H8085H7350H6213H6924H3117H3335H935H7582H1219H5892H5327H1530 27That is why their people have so little power and are so frightened and confused. They are as weak as grass, as easily trampled as tender green shoots. They are like grass sprouting on a housetop, scorched before it can grow lush and tall.H3427H7116H3027H2865H954H6212H7704H3419H1877H2682H1406H7709H6440H7054 28“But I know you well—where you stay and when you come and go. I know the way you have raged against me.H3045H3427H3318H935H7264 29And because of your raging against me and your arrogance, which I have heard for myself, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth. I will make you return by the same road on which you came.”H7264H7600H5927H241H7760H2397H639H4964H8193H7725H1870H935 30Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Here is the proof that what I say is true. “This year you will eat only what grows up by itself, and next year you will eat what springs up from that. But in the third year you will plant crops and harvest them; you will tend vineyards and eat their fruit.H226H398H8141H5599H8145H8141H7823H7992H8141H2232H7114H5193H3754H398H6529 31And you who are left in Judah, who have escaped the ravages of the siege, will put roots down in your own soil and grow up and flourish.H7604H6413H1004H3063H3254H8328H4295H6213H6529H4605 32For a remnant of my people will spread out from Jerusalem, a group of survivors from Mount Zion. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!H3389H3318H7611H6413H2022H6726H7068H3068H6635H6213 33“And this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria. “‘His armies will not enter Jerusalem. They will not even shoot an arrow at it. They will not march outside its gates with their shields nor build banks of earth against its walls.H559H3068H4428H804H935H5892H3384H2671H6923H4043H8210H5550 34The king will return to his own country by the same road on which he came. He will not enter this city,’ says the Lord.H1870H935H7725H935H5892H5002H3068 35‘For my own honor and for the sake of my servant David, I will defend this city and protect it.’”H1598H5892H3467H5650H1732 36That night the angel of the Lord went out to the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. When the surviving Assyrians woke up the next morning, they found corpses everywhere.H4397H3068H3318H5221H4264H804H3967H8084H2568H505H7925H1242H4191H6297 37Then King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and returned to his own land. He went home to his capital of Nineveh and stayed there.H5576H4428H804H5265H3212H7725H3427H5210 38One day while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with their swords. They then escaped to the land of Ararat, and another son, Esarhaddon, became the next king of Assyria.H7812H1004H5268H430H152H8272H1121H5221H2719H4422H776H780H634H1121H4427