12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar?
13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?
14 And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.
15 And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD, saying,
16 O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubim, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and earth.
17 Incline thy ear, O LORD, and hear; open thy eyes, O LORD, and see: and hear all the words of Sennacherib, who hath sent to reproach the living God.
18 Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations, and their countries, [1]
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. [2]
20 Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD, even thou only.
21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Though thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria:
22 This is the word which the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and mocked thee; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.
23 Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted thy eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.
24 By thy servants hast thou reproached the Lord, and hast said, By the multitude of my chariots have I come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon; and I will cut down its tall cedars, and its choice fir trees: and I will enter into the height of its border, and the forest of his Carmel. [3] [4] [5]
25 I have dug, and drunk water; and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of the besieged places. [6]
26 Hast thou not heard long ago, how I have done it; and of ancient times, that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps. [7]
27 Therefore their inhabitants were of small 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 grain blighted before it is grown up. [8]
28 But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me. [9]
29 Because thy rage against me, and thy tumult, is come up into my ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.
30 And this shall be a sign to thee, Ye shall eat this year such as groweth of itself; and the second year that which springeth of the same: and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
31 And the remnant that hath escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward: [10]
32 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape from mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this. [11]
33 Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a mount against it.
34 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD.
35 For I will defend this city to save it for my own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.
36 Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred and eighty and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead bodies.
37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.
38 And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Armenia: and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead. [12]
CHAP. 38.
In those days was Hezekiah sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thy house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live. [13]
2 Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the LORD,
3 And said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly. [14]
4 Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying,
5 Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add to thy days fifteen years.
6 And I will deliver thee and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city.
7 And this shall be a sign to thee from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he hath spoken;
8 Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which hath gone down on the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it had gone down. [15]
9 The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered from his sickness:
10 I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the rest of my years.
11 I said, I shall not see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.
12 My age hath departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd’s tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life: he will cut me off with pining sickness: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. [16]
13 I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.
14 Like a crane or a swallow, so I chattered: I mourned as a dove: my eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me. [17]
15 What shall I say? he hath both spoken to me, and himself hath done it : I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul.
16 O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: so wilt thou restore me, and make me to live.
17 Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. [18] [19]
18 For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.
19 The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.
20 The LORD was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD.
21 For Isaiah
- ↑ nations: Heb. lands
- ↑ cast: Heb. given
- ↑ By thy...: Heb. By the hand of thy servants
- ↑ the tall...: Heb. the tallness of the cedars thereof and the choice of the fir trees thereof
- ↑ the forest...: or, the forest and his fruitful field
- ↑ besieged: or, fenced and closed
- ↑ Hast...: or, Hast thou not heard how I have made it long ago, and formed it of ancient times? should I now bring it to be laid waste, and defenced cities to be ruinous heaps?
- ↑ of small...: Heb. short of hand
- ↑ abode: or, sitting
- ↑ the remnant...: Heb. the escaping of the house of Judah that remaineth
- ↑ they...: Heb. the escaping
- ↑ Armenia: Heb. Ararat
- ↑ Set...: Heb. Give charge concerning thy house
- ↑ sore: Heb. with great weeping
- ↑ sun dial: Heb. degrees by, or, with the sun
- ↑ with...: or, from the thrum
- ↑ undertake...: or, ease me
- ↑ for peace...: or, on my peace came great bitterness
- ↑ thou hast in...: Heb. thou hast loved my soul from the pit
