Isaiah 37

1When King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his garments, clad himself in sackcloth, and entered the house of Yahweh.

2He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests clothed in sackcloth, to Isaiah son of Amoz the prophet.

3They said to him, "Hezekiah declares: This day is one of distress, chastening, and contempt, for children have reached the point of birth, yet there is no strength to deliver.

4Perhaps Yahweh your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words that Yahweh your God has heard, so lift up your prayer for the remnant that remains.

5King Hezekiah's servants came to Isaiah.

6Isaiah said to them, "Say this to your master: 'This is what Yahweh says: Do not be afraid of the words you have heard, by which the servants of Assyria's king have blasphemed me.'"

7Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he will hear a report and return to his own land; I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.

8Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, because he had heard that he had departed from Lachish.

9He heard about Tirhakah, king of Cush, that he had come out to fight against you. When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

10Thus tell Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you by saying Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.

11Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. Will you be delivered?

12Did the gods of the nations that my fathers destroyed deliver them—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar?

13Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?

14Hezekiah took the letters from the hand of the messengers and read them. Hezekiah went up to the house of Yahweh and spread them before Yahweh.

15Hezekiah prayed to Yahweh, saying,

16Yahweh of hosts, God of Israel enthroned above the cherubim, you alone are God of all the earth's kingdoms. You made the heavens and the earth.

17Yahweh, incline your ear and hear; open your eyes, Yahweh, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, who sent to taunt the living God.

18Indeed, Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have destroyed all the lands and their land.

19and put their gods into the fire, for they themselves were no gods but the work of human hands—wood and stone—and destroyed them.

20Now, Yahweh our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are Yahweh.

21Isaiah son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah: "Yahweh God of Israel declares as follows, since you have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria."

22This is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him: the virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and mocked you; the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head behind you.

23Whom have you taunted and reviled, and against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes to the heights—to the Holy One of Israel?

24Through your servants you defied the Lord and said, "With the abundance of my chariots I ascended the heights of the mountains, to the remotest parts of Lebanon; I will cut down its tall cedars and its choice fir trees, and I will enter the heights of its farthest border, the forest of its fruitful field."

25I dug and drank water, and with the sole of my feet I will dry up all the rivers of the fortified places.

26Haven't you heard what I did long ago and fashioned in ancient days? Now I have brought it about for you to shatter fortified cities into ruined heaps.

27Their inhabitants were powerless, terrified and ashamed—like grass in the field, green herbs, grass on the rooftops, and a field before the stalks rise.

28I know your dwelling, your going out, your coming in, and your fury against me.

29Because your rage against me and your tumult have reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bridle in your lips, and turn you back by the way by which you came.

30This will be the sign for you: this year eat what grows on its own, the second year what springs from it, the third year sow seed, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.

31The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward.

32For from Jerusalem a remnant will come forth, and survivors from Mount Zion; the zeal of Yahweh of hosts will accomplish this.

33Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria: He will not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor advance against it with a shield, nor heap up a ramp upon it.

34He will return by the way he came and will not come to this city, says Yahweh.

35I will defend this city to save it, for my sake and for David my servant's sake.

36The angel of Yahweh went out and struck 185,000 in the Assyrian camp, and when they rose early in the morning, behold, all of them were dead corpses.

37Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed, went away, and returned to Nineveh, where he dwelt.

38As he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.