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Hezekiah
Seeks Isaiah's Help |
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| Isaiah 37:1 |
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And when King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his
clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of the LORD. |
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| Isaiah 37:2 |
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Then he sent Eliakim who was over the household
with Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth,
to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. |
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| Isaiah 37:3 |
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They said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah, 'This
day is a day of distress, rebuke and rejection; for children have come to birth,
and there is no strength to deliver. |
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| Isaiah 37:4 |
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'Perhaps the LORD your God will hear the words
of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living
God, and will rebuke the words which the LORD your God has heard. Therefore, offer
a prayer for the remnant that is left.'" |
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| Isaiah 37:5 |
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So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. |
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| Isaiah 37:6 |
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Isaiah said to them, "Thus you shall say to
your master, 'Thus says the LORD, "Do not be afraid because of the words that
you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed
Me. |
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| Isaiah 37:7 |
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"Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that
he will hear a rumor and return to his own land. And I will make him fall by the
sword in his own land."'" |
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| Isaiah 37:8 |
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Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of
Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish.
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| Isaiah 37:9 |
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When he heard them say concerning Tirhakah king
of Cush, "He has come out to fight against you," and when he heard it he sent
messengers to Hezekiah, saying, |
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| Isaiah 37:10 |
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"Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of Judah,
'Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, "Jerusalem will not
be given into the hand of the king of Assyria." |
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| Isaiah 37:11 |
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'Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria
have done to all the lands, destroying them completely. So will you be spared?
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| Isaiah 37:12 |
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'Did the gods of those nations which my fathers
have destroyed deliver them, even Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the sons of Eden
who were in Telassar? |
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| Isaiah 37:13 |
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'Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad,
the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah?'" |
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Hezekiah's Prayer in the Temple |
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| Isaiah 37:14 |
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Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand
of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the LORD and spread
it out before the LORD. |
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| Isaiah 37:15 |
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Hezekiah prayed to the LORD saying, |
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| Isaiah 37:16 |
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"O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, who is
enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms
of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. |
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| Isaiah 37:17 |
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"Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your
eyes, O LORD, and see; and listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them
to reproach the living God. |
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| Isaiah 37:18 |
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"Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have devastated
all the countries and their lands, |
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| Isaiah 37:19 |
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and have cast their gods into the fire, for
they were not gods but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed
them. |
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| Isaiah 37:20 |
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"Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand
that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, LORD, are God." |
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God Answers through Isaiah |
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| Isaiah 37:21 |
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Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah,
saying, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'Because you have prayed to Me
about Sennacherib king of Assyria, |
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| Isaiah 37:22 |
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this is the word that the LORD has spoken against
him: "She has despised you and mocked you, The virgin daughter of Zion; She has
shaken her head behind you, The daughter of Jerusalem! |
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| Isaiah 37:23 |
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"Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? And
against whom have you raised your voice And haughtily lifted up your eyes? Against
the Holy One of Israel! |
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| Isaiah 37:24 |
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"Through your servants you have reproached the
Lord, And you have said, 'With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the
mountains, To the remotest parts of Lebanon; And I cut down its tall cedars and
its choice cypresses. And I will go to its highest peak, its thickest forest. |
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| Isaiah 37:25 |
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'I dug wells and drank waters, And with the
sole of my feet I dried up All the rivers of Egypt.' |
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| Isaiah 37:26 |
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"Have you not heard? Long ago I did it, From
ancient times I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, That you should turn
fortified cities into ruinous heaps. |
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| Isaiah 37:27 |
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"Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength,
They were dismayed and put to shame; They were as the vegetation of the field
and as the green herb, As grass on the housetops is scorched before it is grown
up. |
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| Isaiah 37:28 |
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"But I know your sitting down And your going
out and your coming in And your raging against Me. |
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| Isaiah 37:29 |
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"Because of your raging against Me And because
your arrogance has come up to My ears, Therefore I will put My hook in your nose
And My bridle in your lips, And I will turn you back by the way which you came. |
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| Isaiah 37:30 |
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"Then this shall be the sign for you: you will
eat this year what grows of itself, in the second year what springs from the same,
and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. |
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| Isaiah 37:31 |
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"The surviving remnant of the house of Judah
will again take root downward and bear fruit upward. |
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| Isaiah 37:32 |
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"For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant
and out of Mount Zion survivors. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this."' |
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| Isaiah 37:33 |
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"Therefore, thus says the LORD concerning the
king of Assyria, 'He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he
will not come before it with a shield, or throw up a siege ramp against it. |
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| Isaiah 37:34 |
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'By the way that he came, by the same he will
return, and he will not come to this city,' declares the LORD. |
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| Isaiah 37:35 |
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'For I will defend this city to save it for
My own sake and for My servant David's sake.'" |
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Assyrians Destroyed |
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| Isaiah 37:36 |
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Then the angel of the LORD went out and struck
185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men arose early in the morning,
behold, all of these were dead. |
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| Isaiah 37:37 |
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So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and
returned home and lived at Nineveh. |
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| Isaiah 37:38 |
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It came about as he was worshiping in the house
of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons killed him with the
sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son became
king in his place. |
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