36In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, King Sennacherib of Assyria came to attack the fortified towns of Judah and conquered them.H702H6240H8141H4428H2396H5576H4428H804H5927H1219H5892H3063H86102Then the king of Assyria sent his chief of staff from Lachish with a huge army to confront King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. The Assyrians took up a position beside the aqueduct that feeds water into the upper pool, near the road leading to the field where cloth is washed.H4428H804H7971H7262H3923H3389H4428H2396H3515H2426H5975H8585H5945H1295H4546H3526H77043These are the officials who went out to meet with them: Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace administrator; Shebna the court secretary; and Joah son of Asaph, the royal historian.H3318H471H2518H1121H1004H7644H5608H3098H623H1121H2142
Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem
4Then the Assyrian king’s chief of staff told them to give this message to Hezekiah. “This is what the great king of Assyria says: What are you trusting in that makes you so confident?H7262H559H559H2396H559H1419H4428H4428H804H986H9825Do you think that mere words can substitute for military skill and strength? Who are you counting on, that you have rebelled against me?H559H8193H1697H6098H1369H4421H982H47756On Egypt? If you lean on Egypt, it will be like a reed that splinters beneath your weight and pierces your hand. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, is completely unreliable!H982H4938H7533H7070H4714H376H5564H935H3709H5344H6547H4428H4714H9827“But perhaps you will say to me, ‘We are trusting in the Lord our God!’ But isn’t he the one who was insulted by Hezekiah? Didn’t Hezekiah tear down his shrines and altars and make everyone in Judah and Jerusalem worship only at the altar here in Jerusalem?H559H982H3068H430H1116H4196H2396H5493H559H3063H3389H7812H6440H41968“I’ll tell you what! Strike a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria. I will give you 2,000 horses if you can find that many men to ride on them!H6148H113H4428H804H5414H505H5483H3201H5414H73929With your tiny army, how can you think of challenging even the weakest contingent of my master’s troops, even with the help of Egypt’s chariots and charioteers?H7725H6440H259H6346H6996H113H5650H982H4714H7393H657110What’s more, do you think we have invaded your land without the Lord’s direction? The Lord himself told us, ‘Attack this land and destroy it!’”H5927H1107H3068H776H7843H3068H559H5927H776H784311Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Assyrian chief of staff, “Please speak to us in Aramaic, for we understand it well. Don’t speak in Hebrew, for the people on the wall will hear.”H559H471H7644H3098H7262H1696H5650H762H8085H1696H3066H241H5971H234612But Sennacherib’s chief of staff replied, “Do you think my master sent this message only to you and your master? He wants all the people to hear it, for when we put this city under siege, they will suffer along with you. They will be so hungry and thirsty that they will eat their own dung and drink their own urine.”H7262H559H113H7971H113H1696H1697H582H3427H2346H398H2716H6675H8354H4325H7272H789013Then the chief of staff stood and shouted in Hebrew to the people on the wall, “Listen to this message from the great king of Assyria!H7262H5975H7121H1419H6963H3066H559H8085H1697H1419H4428H4428H80414This is what the king says: Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you. He will never be able to rescue you.H559H4428H2396H5377H3201H533715Don’t let him fool you into trusting in the Lord by saying, ‘The Lord will surely rescue us. This city will never fall into the hands of the Assyrian king!’H2396H982H3068H559H3068H5337H5337H5892H5414H3027H4428H80416“Don’t listen to Hezekiah! These are the terms the king of Assyria is offering: Make peace with me—open the gates and come out. Then each of you can continue eating from your own grapevine and fig tree and drinking from your own well.H8085H2396H559H4428H804H6213H1293H3318H398H376H1612H376H8384H8354H376H4325H95317Then I will arrange to take you to another land like this one—a land of grain and new wine, bread and vineyards.H935H3947H776H776H776H1715H8492H776H3899H375418“Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you by saying, ‘The Lord will rescue us!’ Have the gods of any other nations ever saved their people from the king of Assyria?H2396H5496H559H3068H5337H376H430H1471H5337H776H3027H4428H80419What happened to the gods of Hamath and Arpad? And what about the gods of Sepharvaim? Did any god rescue Samaria from my power?H430H2574H774H430H5617H5337H8111H302720What god of any nation has ever been able to save its people from my power? So what makes you think that the Lord can rescue Jerusalem from me?”H430H776H5337H776H3027H3068H5337H3389H302721But the people were silent and did not utter a word because Hezekiah had commanded them, “Do not answer him.”H2790H6030H1697H4428H4687H559H603022Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace administrator; Shebna the court secretary; and Joah son of Asaph, the royal historian, went back to Hezekiah. They tore their clothes in despair, and they went in to see the king and told him what the Assyrian chief of staff had said.H935H471H1121H2518H1004H7644H5608H3098H1121H623H2142H2396H899H7167H5046H1697H7262
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.H4428H2396H8085H7167H899H3680H8242H935H1004H30682And 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.H7971H471H1004H7644H5608H2205H3548H3680H8242H3470H5030H1121H5313They 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.H559H559H2396H3117H3117H6869H8433H5007H1121H935H4866H3581H32054But 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!”H3068H430H8085H1697H7262H4428H804H113H7971H2778H2416H430H3198H1697H3068H430H8085H5375H8605H7611H46725After King Hezekiah’s officials delivered the king’s message to Isaiah,H5650H4428H2396H935H34706the 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.H3470H559H559H113H559H3068H3372H6440H1697H8085H5288H4428H804H14427Listen! 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.’”H5414H7307H8085H8052H7725H776H5307H2719H7768Meanwhile, the Assyrian chief of staff left Jerusalem and went to consult the king of Assyria, who had left Lachish and was attacking Libnah.H7262H7725H4672H4428H804H3898H3841H8085H5265H39239Soon 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.H8085H559H8640H4428H3568H3318H3898H8085H7971H4397H2396H55910“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.H559H2396H4428H3063H559H430H982H5377H559H3389H5414H3027H4428H80411You 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?H8085H4428H804H6213H776H2763H533712Have 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!H430H1471H5337H1H7843H1470H2771H7530H1121H5729H851513What happened to the king of Hamath and the king of Arpad? What happened to the kings of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?”H4428H2574H4428H774H4428H5892H5617H2012H575514After 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.H2396H3947H5612H3027H4397H7121H2396H5927H1004H3068H6566H6440H306815And Hezekiah prayed this prayer before the Lord:H2396H6419H3068H55916“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.H3068H6635H430H3478H3427H3742H430H4467H776H6213H8064H77617Bend down, O Lord, and listen! Open your eyes, O Lord, and see! Listen to Sennacherib’s words of defiance against the living God.H5186H241H3068H8085H6491H5869H3068H7200H8085H1697H5576H7971H2778H2416H43018“It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all these nations.H551H3068H4428H804H2717H776H77619And 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.H5414H430H784H430H4639H120H3027H6086H68H620Now, 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,H3470H1121H531H7971H2396H559H559H3068H430H3478H6419H5576H4428H80422the 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.H1697H3068H1696H1330H1323H6726H959H3932H1323H3389H5128H7218H31023“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!H2778H1442H7311H6963H5375H5869H4791H6918H347824By 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.H3027H5650H2778H136H559H7230H7393H5927H4791H2022H3411H3844H3772H6967H730H4005H1265H935H4791H7093H3293H376025I 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!’H6979H8354H4325H3709H6471H2717H2975H469326“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.H8085H7350H6213H6924H3117H3335H935H7582H1219H5892H5327H153027That 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.H3427H7116H3027H2865H954H6212H7704H3419H1877H2682H1406H7709H6440H705428“But I know you well—where you stay and when you come and go. I know the way you have raged against me.H3045H3427H3318H935H726429And 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.”H7264H7600H5927H241H7760H2397H639H4964H8193H7725H1870H93530Then 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.H226H398H8141H5599H8145H8141H7823H7992H8141H2232H7114H5193H3754H398H652931And 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.H7604H6413H1004H3063H3254H8328H4295H6213H6529H460532For 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!H3389H3318H7611H6413H2022H6726H7068H3068H6635H621333“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.H559H3068H4428H804H935H5892H3384H2671H6923H4043H8210H555034The king will return to his own country by the same road on which he came. He will not enter this city,’ says the Lord.H1870H935H7725H935H5892H5002H306835‘For my own honor and for the sake of my servant David, I will defend this city and protect it.’”H1598H5892H3467H5650H173236That 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.H4397H3068H3318H5221H4264H804H3967H8084H2568H505H7925H1242H4191H629737Then King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and returned to his own land. He went home to his capital of Nineveh and stayed there.H5576H4428H804H5265H3212H7725H3427H521038One 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
Hezekiah’s Sickness and Recovery
38About that time Hezekiah became deathly ill, and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to visit him. He gave the king this message: “This is what the Lord says: ‘Set your affairs in order, for you are going to die. You will not recover from this illness.’”H3117H2396H2470H4191H3470H5030H1121H531H935H559H559H3068H1004H6680H4191H24212When Hezekiah heard this, he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord,H2396H5437H6440H7023H6419H30683“Remember, O Lord, how I have always been faithful to you and have served you single-mindedly, always doing what pleases you.” Then he broke down and wept bitterly.H559H2142H3068H577H1980H6440H571H8003H3820H6213H2896H5869H2396H1058H1065H14194Then this message came to Isaiah from the Lord:H1697H3068H3470H5595“Go back to Hezekiah and tell him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your ancestor David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will add fifteen years to your life,H1980H559H2396H559H3068H430H1732H1H8085H8605H7200H1832H3254H3117H2568H6240H81416and I will rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria. Yes, I will defend this city.H5337H5892H3709H4428H804H1598H58927“‘And this is the sign from the Lord to prove that he will do as he promised:H226H3068H3068H6213H1697H16968I will cause the sun’s shadow to move ten steps backward on the sundial of Ahaz!’” So the shadow on the sundial moved backward ten steps.H7725H6738H4609H3381H8121H4609H271H6235H4609H322H8121H7725H6235H4609H4609H3381
Hezekiah’s Poem of Praise
9When King Hezekiah was well again, he wrote this poem.H4385H2396H4428H3063H2470H2421H248310I said, “In the prime of my life, must I now enter the place of the dead? Am I to be robbed of the rest of my years?”H559H1824H3117H3212H8179H7585H6485H3499H814111I said, “Never again will I see the Lord God while still in the land of the living. Never again will I see my friends or be with those who live in this world.H559H7200H3050H3050H776H2416H5027H120H3427H230912My life has been blown away like a shepherd’s tent in a storm. It has been cut short, as when a weaver cuts cloth from a loom. Suddenly, my life was over.H1755H5265H1540H7473H168H7088H707H2416H1214H1803H3117H3915H799913I waited patiently all night, but I was torn apart as though by lions. Suddenly, my life was over.H7737H1242H738H7665H6106H3117H3915H799914Delirious, I chattered like a swallow or a crane, and then I moaned like a mourning dove. My eyes grew tired of looking to heaven for help. I am in trouble, Lord. Help me!”H5483H5693H6850H1897H3123H5869H1809H4791H3068H6234H614815But what could I say? For he himself sent this sickness. Now I will walk humbly throughout my years because of this anguish I have felt.H1696H559H6213H1718H8141H4751H531516Lord, your discipline is good, for it leads to life and health. You restore my health and allow me to live!H136H2421H2416H7307H2492H242117Yes, this anguish was good for me, for you have rescued me from death and forgiven all my sins.H7965H4751H4843H2836H5315H7845H1097H7993H2399H310H146018For the dead cannot praise you; they cannot raise their voices in praise. Those who go down to the grave can no longer hope in your faithfulness.H7585H3034H4194H1984H3381H953H7663H57119Only the living can praise you as I do today. Each generation tells of your faithfulness to the next.H2416H2416H3034H3117H1H1121H3045H57120Think of it—the Lord is ready to heal me! I will sing his praises with instruments every day of my life in the Temple of the Lord.H3068H3467H5058H5059H3117H2416H1004H306821Isaiah had said to Hezekiah’s servants, “Make an ointment from figs and spread it over the boil, and Hezekiah will recover.”H3470H559H5375H1690H8384H4799H7822H242122And Hezekiah had asked, “What sign will prove that I will go to the Temple of the Lord?”H2396H559H226H5927H1004H3068
117Praise the Lord, all you nations. Praise him, all you people of the earth.H1984H3068H1471H7623H5232For he loves us with unfailing love; the Lord’s faithfulness endures forever. Praise the Lord!H2617H2617H1396H571H3068H5769H1984H3050
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, King Sennacherib of Assyria came to attack the fortified towns of Judah and conquered them.H702
