Isaiah 37
37When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the LORD.H4428H2396H8085H7167H899H3680H8242H935H1004H30682He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.H7971H471H1004H7644H5608H2205H3548H3680H8242H3470H5030H1121H5313They told him, "This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the point of birth and there is no strength to deliver them.H559H559H2396H3117H3117H6869H8433H5007H1121H935H4866H3581H32054It may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the living God, and that he will rebuke him for the words the LORD your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant that still survives."H3068H430H8085H1697H7262H4428H804H113H7971H2778H2416H430H3198H1697H3068H430H8085H5375H8605H7611H46725When King Hezekiah's officials came to Isaiah,H5650H4428H2396H935H34706Isaiah said to them, "Tell your master, 'This is what the LORD says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard--those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.H3470H559H559H113H559H3068H3372H6440H1697H8085H5288H4428H804H14427Listen! I am going to put a spirit in him so that when he hears a certain report, he will return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.'"H5414H7307H8085H8052H7725H776H5307H2719H7768When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.H7262H7725H4672H4428H804H3898H3841H8085H5265H39239Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the Cushite king of Egypt, was marching out to fight against him. When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word:H8085H559H8640H4428H3568H3318H3898H8085H7971H4397H2396H55910"Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says, 'Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.'H559H2396H4428H3063H559H430H982H5377H559H3389H5414H3027H4428H80411Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered?H8085H4428H804H6213H776H2763H533712Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my forefathers deliver them--the gods of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar?H430H1471H5337H1H7843H1470H2771H7530H1121H5729H851513Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, or of Hena or Ivvah?"H4428H2574H4428H774H4428H5892H5617H2012H575514Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD.H2396H3947H5612H3027H4397H7121H2396H5927H1004H3068H6566H6440H306815And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD:H2396H6419H3068H55916"O LORD Almighty, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.H3068H6635H430H3478H3427H3742H430H4467H776H6213H8064H77617Give ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God.H5186H241H3068H8085H6491H5869H3068H7200H8085H1697H5576H7971H2778H2416H43018"It is true, O LORD, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands.H551H3068H4428H804H2717H776H77619They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands.H5414H430H784H430H4639H120H3027H6086H68H620Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O LORD, are God."H3068H430H3467H3027H4467H776H3045H306821Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria,H3470H1121H531H7971H2396H559H559H3068H430H3478H6419H5576H4428H80422this is the word the LORD has spoken against him: "The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises and mocks you. The Daughter of Jerusalem tosses her head as you flee.H1697H3068H1696H1330H1323H6726H959H3932H1323H3389H5128H7218H31023Who is it you have insulted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel!H2778H1442H7311H6963H5375H5869H4791H6918H347824By your messengers you have heaped insults on the Lord. And you have said, 'With my many chariots I have ascended the heights of the mountains, the utmost heights of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the choicest of its pines. I have reached its remotest heights, the finest of its forests.H3027H5650H2778H136H559H7230H7393H5927H4791H2022H3411H3844H3772H6967H730H4005H1265H935H4791H7093H3293H376025I have dug wells in foreign lands and drunk the water there. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.'H6979H8354H4325H3709H6471H2717H2975H469326"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 have turned fortified cities into piles of stone.H8085H7350H6213H6924H3117H3335H935H7582H1219H5892H5327H153027Their people, drained of power, are dismayed and put to shame. They are like plants in the field, like tender green shoots, like grass sprouting on the roof, scorched before it grows up.H3427H7116H3027H2865H954H6212H7704H3419H1877H2682H1406H7709H6440H705428"But I know where you stay and when you come and go and how you rage against me.H3045H3427H3318H935H726429Because you rage against me and because your insolence has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will make you return by the way you came.H7264H7600H5927H241H7760H2397H639H4964H8193H7725H1870H93530"This will be the sign for you, O Hezekiah: "This year you will eat what grows by itself, and the second year what springs from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.H226H398H8141H5599H8145H8141H7823H7992H8141H2232H7114H5193H3754H398H652931Once more a remnant of the house of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above.H7604H6413H1004H3063H3254H8328H4295H6213H6529H460532For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.H3389H3318H7611H6413H2022H6726H7068H3068H6635H621333"Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning the king of Assyria: "He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it.H559H3068H4428H804H935H5892H3384H2671H6923H4043H8210H555034By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city," declares the LORD.H1870H935H7725H935H5892H5002H306835"I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!"H1598H5892H3467H5650H173236Then the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning--there were all the dead bodies!H4397H3068H3318H5221H4264H804H3967H8084H2568H505H7925H1242H4191H629737So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.H5576H4428H804H5265H3212H7725H3427H521038One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer cut him down with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.H7812H1004H5268H430H152H8272H1121H5221H2719H4422H776H780H634H1121H4427
Columbus, OH
