Isaiah 37
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.”H3068H430H3467H3027H4467H776H3045H306821Then 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
Isaiah 38
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.’”H3117H2396H2470H4191H3470H5030H1121H531H935H559H559H3068H1004H6680H4191H2421 2When Hezekiah heard this, he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord,H2396H5437H6440H7023H6419H3068 3“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.H559H2142H3068H577H1980H6440H571H8003H3820H6213H2896H5869H2396H1058H1065H1419 4Then this message came to Isaiah from the Lord:H1697H3068H3470H559 5“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,H1980H559H2396H559H3068H430H1732H1H8085H8605H7200H1832H3254H3117H2568H6240H8141 6and I will rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria. Yes, I will defend this city.H5337H5892H3709H4428H804H1598H5892 7“‘And this is the sign from the Lord to prove that he will do as he promised:H226H3068H3068H6213H1697H1696 8I 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 9When King Hezekiah was well again, he wrote this poem.H4385H2396H4428H3063H2470H2421H2483 10I 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?”H559H1824H3117H3212H8179H7585H6485H3499H8141 11I 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.H559H7200H3050H3050H776H2416H5027H120H3427H2309 12My 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.H1755H5265H1540H7473H168H7088H707H2416H1214H1803H3117H3915H7999 13I waited patiently all night, but I was torn apart as though by lions. Suddenly, my life was over.H7737H1242H738H7665H6106H3117H3915H7999 14Delirious, 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!”H5483H5693H6850H1897H3123H5869H1809H4791H3068H6234H6148 15But 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.H1696H559H6213H1718H8141H4751H5315 16Lord, your discipline is good, for it leads to life and health. You restore my health and allow me to live!H136H2421H2416H7307H2492H2421 17Yes, this anguish was good for me, for you have rescued me from death and forgiven all my sins.H7965H4751H4843H2836H5315H7845H1097H7993H2399H310H1460 18For 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.H7585H3034H4194H1984H3381H953H7663H571 19Only the living can praise you as I do today. Each generation tells of your faithfulness to the next.H2416H2416H3034H3117H1H1121H3045H571 20Think 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.H3068H3467H5058H5059H3117H2416H1004H3068 21Isaiah had said to Hezekiah’s servants, “Make an ointment from figs and spread it over the boil, and Hezekiah will recover.”H3470H559H5375H1690H8384H4799H7822H2421 22And Hezekiah had asked, “What sign will prove that I will go to the Temple of the Lord?”H2396H559H226H5927H1004H3068
Isaiah 39
39Soon after this, Merodach-baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent Hezekiah his best wishes and a gift. He had heard that Hezekiah had been very sick and that he had recovered.H6256H4757H1121H1081H4428H894H7971H5612H4503H2396H8085H2470H23882Hezekiah was delighted with the Babylonian envoys and showed them everything in his treasure-houses—the silver, the gold, the spices, and the aromatic oils. He also took them to see his armory and showed them everything in his royal treasuries! There was nothing in his palace or kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.H2396H8055H7200H1004H5238H3701H2091H1314H2896H8081H1004H3627H4672H214H1697H1004H4475H2396H72003Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did those men want? Where were they from?” Hezekiah replied, “They came from the distant land of Babylon.”H935H3470H5030H4428H2396H559H559H582H370H935H2396H559H935H7350H776H8944“What did they see in your palace?” asked Isaiah. “They saw everything,” Hezekiah replied. “I showed them everything I own—all my royal treasuries.”H559H7200H1004H2396H559H1004H7200H1697H214H72005Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Listen to this message from the Lord of Heaven’s Armies:H559H3470H2396H8085H1697H3068H66356‘The time is coming when everything in your palace—all the treasures stored up by your ancestors until now—will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left,’ says the Lord.H3117H935H1004H1H686H3117H5375H894H1697H3498H559H30687‘Some of your very own sons will be taken away into exile. They will become eunuchs who will serve in the palace of Babylon’s king.’”H1121H3318H3205H3947H5631H1964H4428H8948Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “This message you have given me from the Lord is good.” For the king was thinking, “At least there will be peace and security during my lifetime.”H559H2396H3470H2896H1697H3068H1696H559H7965H571H3117
Dublin, OH
, 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!”H3068
