Isaiah Chapter 37

Isaiah 37 — English translation

Translation: THE JPS TANAKH: Gender-Sensitive Edition. Verse numbers match the Hebrew text below.

1. 1When King Hezekiah heard this, he rent his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the House of G OD .
2. 2He also sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna, the scribe, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.
3. 3They said to him, “Thus said Hezekiah: This day is a day of distress, of chastisement, and of disgrace. The babes have reached the birthstool, but the strength to give birth is lacking.
4. 4Perhaps the E TERNAL your God will take note of the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to blaspheme the living God, and will mete out judgment for the words that the E TERNAL your God has heard—if you will offer up prayer for the surviving remnant.”
5. 5When King Hezekiah’s ministers came to Isaiah,
6. 6Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master as follows: Thus said G OD : Do not be frightened by the words of blasphemy against Me that you have heard from the minions of the king of Assyria.
7. 7I will delude him: He will hear a rumor and return to his land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his land.”
8. 8The Rabshakeh, meanwhile, heard that [the king] had left Lachish; he turned back and found the king of Assyria attacking Libnah.
9. 9But [the king of Assyria] learned that King Tirhakah of Cush had come out to fight him; and when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
10. 10“Tell this to King Hezekiah of Judah: Do not let your God, on whom you are relying, mislead you into thinking that Jerusalem will not be delivered into the hands of the king of Assyria.
11. 11You yourself have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, how they have annihilated them; and can you escape?
12. 12Were the nations that my predecessors destroyed—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the Bethedenites in Telassar—saved by their gods?
13. 13Where is the king of Hamath? and the king of Arpad? and the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?”
14. 14Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Hezekiah then went up to the House of G OD and spread it out before G OD .
15. 15And Hezekiah prayed to G OD :
16. 16“O G OD of Hosts—God of Israel—Enthroned on the Cherubim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth.
17. 17O E TERNAL One, incline Your ear and hear, open Your eye and see. Hear all the words that Sennacherib has sent to blaspheme the living God!
18. 18True, O E TERNAL One, the kings of Assyria have annihilated all the nations and their lands
19. 19and have committed their gods to the flames and have destroyed them; for they are not gods, but the handiwork of mere mortals, wood and stone.
20. 20But now, O E TERNAL One our God, deliver us from his hands, and let all the kingdoms of the earth know that You, O E TERNAL One, alone [are God].”
21. 21Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: “Thus said G OD , the God of Israel, to whom you have prayed, concerning King Sennacherib of Assyria—
22. 22this is the word that G OD has spoken concerning him: Fair Maiden Zion despises you, She mocks at you; Fair Jerusalem shakes Her head at you.
23. 23Whom have you blasphemed and reviled? Against whom made loud your voice And haughtily raised your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel!
24. 24Through your servants you have blasphemed the Sovereign. Because you thought, ‘Thanks to my vast chariotry, It is I who have climbed the highest mountains, To the remotest parts of the Lebanon, And have cut down its loftiest cedars, Its choicest cypresses, And have reached its highest peak, Its densest forest.
25. 25It is I who have drawn And drunk water. I have dried up with the soles of my feet All the streams of Egypt.’
26. 26Have you not heard? Of old I planned that very thing, I designed it long ago, And now have fulfilled it. And it has come to pass, Laying fortified towns waste in desolate heaps.
27. 27Their inhabitants are helpless, Dismayed and shamed. They were but grass of the field And green herbage, Grass of the roofs that is blasted Before the east wind.
28. 28I know your stayings And your goings and comings, And how you have raged against Me,
29. 29Because you have raged against Me, And your tumult has reached My ears, I will place My hook in your nose And My bit between your jaws; And I will make you go back by the road By which you came.
30. 30“And this is the sign for you: This year you eat what grows of itself, and the next year what springs from that, and in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
31. 31And the survivors of the House of Judah that have escaped shall renew its trunk below and produce boughs above.
32. 32For a remnant shall come forth from Jerusalem, Survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of G OD of Hosts Shall bring this to pass.
33. 33“Assuredly, thus said G OD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not enter this city; He shall not shoot an arrow at it, Or advance upon it with a shield, Or pile up a siege mound against it.
34. 34He shall go back By the way he came, He shall not enter this city —declares G OD ;
35. 35I will protect and save this city for My sake And for the sake of My servant David.”
36. 36[That night] an angel of G OD went out and struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp, and the following morning they were all dead corpses.
37. 37So King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and retreated, and stayed in Nineveh.
38. 38While he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, he was struck down with the sword by his sons Adrammelech and Sarezer. They fled to the land of Ararat, and his son Esarhaddon succeeded him as king.

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