CHAPTER 37
1 And it was done, when king Hezekiah had heard, he rent his clothes, and he was wrapped in a sackcloth, and entered into the house of the Lord.
2 And he sent Eliakim, that was on the house, and Shebna, the scribe, and the elder men of priests, covered with sackcloths, to Isaiah, the prophet, the son of Amoz.
3 And they said to him, Hezekiah saith these things, A day of tribulation, and of anguish, and of chastising, and of blasphemy is this day; for children came unto childbearing, and strength of childbearing is not.
4 Therefore raise thou [up] prayer for the remnants that be found, if in any manner thy Lord God [or the Lord thy God] hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyrians, his lord, sent, for to blaspheme [the] living God, and to despise by the words, which thy Lord God heard.
5 And the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah;
6 and Isaiah said to them, Ye shall say these things to your lord, The Lord saith these things, Dread thou not of the face of [the] words which thou heardest, by which the servants of the king of Assyrians blasphemed me.
7 Lo! I shall give to him a spirit, and he shall hear a messenger; and he shall turn again to his land, and I shall make him to fall down by sword in his land.
8 Forsooth Rabshakeh turned again, and found the king of Assyrians fighting against Libnah; for he had heard, that the king was gone from Lachish.
9 And the king heard messengers saying of Tirhakah, king of Ethiopians, He is gone out to fight against thee. And when he had heard this thing, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, and said,
10 Ye shall say, speaking these things to Hezekiah, king of Judah, Thy God deceive not thee, in whom thou trustest, and sayest, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyrians.
11 Lo! thou heardest all things which the kings of Assyrians did to all lands which they destroyed; and mayest thou be delivered?
12 Whether the gods of folks delivered them, which my fathers destroyed; Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the sons of Eden, that were in Telassar?
13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena, and of Ivah?
14 And Hezekiah took the books from the hand of the messengers, and read them; and he went up into the house of the Lord, and spreaded abroad them before the Lord;
15 and prayed to the Lord, and said,
16 Lord of hosts, God of Israel, that sittest on cherubim, thou art God alone of all the realms of [the] earth; thou madest heaven and earth.
17 Lord, bow down thine ear, and hear; Lord, open thine eyes, and see; and hear thou all the words of Sennacherib, which he sent for to blaspheme living God.
18 For verily, Lord, the kings of Assyrians made lands desert, and the countries of them,
19 and gave the gods of them to fire; for they were not gods, but the works of men’s hands, wood and stones; and they all-brake those gods.
20 And now, our Lord God, save thou us from the hand of him; and all [the] realms of earth know, that thou art the Lord God alone.
21 And Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, and said, The Lord God of Israel saith these things, For which things thou prayedest me of Sennacherib, the king of Assyrians,
22 this is the word which the Lord spake on him, Thou virgin, the daughter of Zion, he despised thee, he scorned thee; thou virgin, the daughter of Jerusalem, he moved his head after thee.
23 Whom despisest thou, and whom blasphemedest thou? and on whom raisedest thou thy voice, and raisedest the highness of thine eyes? To the Holy of Israel.
24 By the hand of thy servants thou despisedest the Lord, and saidest, In the multitude of my carts, I ascended [or went up] on the highnesses of hills, on the yokes of Lebanon; and I shall cut down the high things of cedars thereof, and the chosen beeches thereof; and I shall enter into the highness of the top thereof, into the forest of Carmel thereof.
25 I digged, and drank water; and I made dry with the step of my foot all the strands [or rivers] of [the] fields.
26 Whether thou, Sennacherib, heardest not what things I did some-time? From eld days I formed that thing, and now I have brought; and it is made into the drawing up by the root of little hills fighting together, and of strong cities.
27 The dwellers of those cities trembled together with hand made short, and be ashamed; they be made as hay of the field, and as the grass of [the] pasture, and as herb of house roofs, either ridges, that dried up before that it waxed ripe.
28 I knew thy dwelling, and thy going out, and thine entering, and thy strong vengeance against me.
29 When thou were wroth against me, thy pride ascended [or went up] into mine ears; therefore I shall set a ring in thy nostrils, and a bridle in thy lips; and I shall lead thee into the way, by which thou camest.
30 Forsooth to thee, Hezekiah, this shall be a sign; eat thou in this year those things that grow by their free will, and in the second year eat thou apples; but in the third year, sow ye, and reap ye, and plant ye vineries [or vines], and eat ye the fruit of them.
31 And that that is saved of the house of Judah, and that, that is left, shall send [the] root beneath, and shall make fruit above;
32 for why remnants shall go out of Jerusalem, and salvation from the hill of Zion; the fervent love of the Lord of hosts shall do this thing.
33 Therefore the Lord saith these things of the king of Assyrians, He shall not enter into this city, and he shall not shoot there an arrow; and a shield shall not occupy it, and he shall not send [an heap of] earth in the compass thereof.
34 In the way in which he came, he shall turn again by it; and he shall not enter into this city, saith the Lord.
35 And I shall defend this city, that I save it, for me, and for David, my servant.
36 Forsooth the angel of the Lord went out, and killed an hundred thousand and fourscore and five thousand in the tents of Assyrians; and they rose early, and lo! all men were[the] carrions of dead men.
37 And Sennacherib went out of Judah, and went away. And Sennach-erib, the king of Assyrians, turned again, and dwelled in Nineveh.
38 And it was done, when he worshipped Nisroch, his god, in the temple, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, killed him with sword, and fled into the land of Ararat, that is, Armenia; and Esarhaddon, his son, reigned for him.