The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Isaiah 37
1 When King Hezekiah heard it, he tore
his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth,
and went into Yahweh’s house.
2 He sent Eliakim, who was over the
household, and Shebna the scribe, and the
elders of the priests, covered with
sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of
Amoz.
3 They said to him, “Hezekiah says,
‘Today is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and
of rejection; for the children have come to
the birth, and there is no strength to give
birth.
4 It may be 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 which
Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore
lift up your prayer for the remnant that is
left.
5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came
to Isaiah.
6 Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master,
‘Yahweh says, “Don’t be afraid of the
words that you have heard, with which
the servants of the king of Assyria have
blasphemed me.
7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him and he
will hear news, and will return to his own
land. I will cause him to fall by the sword
in his own land.
8 So Rabshakeh returned, and found the
king of Assyria warring against Libnah,
for he heard that he had departed from
Lachish.
9 He heard news concerning Tirhakah
king of Ethiopia, “He has come out to fight
against you.” When he heard it, he sent
messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
10 “Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah
king of Judah, saying, ‘Don’t let your God
in whom you trust deceive you, saying,
“Jerusalem won’t be given into the hand of
the king of Assyria.”
11 Behold, youhaveheard whatthe kings
of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying
them utterly. Shall you be delivered?
12 Have the gods of the nations delivered
them, which my fathers have destroyed,
Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of
Eden who were in Telassar?
13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the
king of Arpad, and the king of the city of
Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?’
14 Hezekiah received the letter from the
hand of the messengers and read it. Then
Hezekiah went up to Yahweh’s house, and
spread it before Yahweh.
15 Hezekiah prayed to Yahweh, saying,
16 “Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel,
who is enthroned among the cherubim,
you are the God, even you alone, of all the
kingdoms of the earth. You have made
heaven and earth.
17 Turn your ear, Yahweh, and hear.
Open your eyes, Yahweh, and behold.
Hear all of the words of Sennacherib, who
has sent to defy the living God.
18 Truly, Yahweh, the kings of Assyria
have destroyed all the countries and their
land,
19 and have cast their gods into the fire;
for they were no gods, but the work of
men’s hands, wood and stone; therefore
they have destroyed them.
20 Now therefore, Yahweh our God, save
us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of
the earth may know that you are Yahweh,
even you only.”
21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to
Hezekiah, saying, “Yahweh, the God of
Israel says, ‘Because you have prayed to me
against Sennacherib king of Assyria,
22 this is the word which Yahweh has
spoken concerning him: The virgin
daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed
you. The daughter of Jerusalem has
shaken her head at you.
23 Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted
your voice and lifted up your eyes on high?
Against the Holy One of Israel.
24 By your servants, you have defied the
Lord, and have said, “With the multitude
of my chariots I have come up to the height
ofthe mountains, to the innermost parts of
Lebanon. I will cut down its tall cedars and
its choice cypress trees. I will enter into
its farthest height, the forest of its fruitful
field.
25 I have dug and drunk water, and with
the sole ofmy feetI willdryupallthe rivers
of Egypt.
26 “ ‘Have you not heard how I have done
it long ago, and formed it in ancient times?
Now Ihave broughtitto pass,thatit should
be yours to destroy for tified cities, turning
them into ruinous heaps.
27 Therefore their inhabitants had little
power. They were dismayed and confounded.
They were like the grass of the
field, and like the green herb, like the grass
on the housetops, and like a field before its
crop has grown.
28 But I know your sitting down, your
going out, your coming in, and your raging
against me.
29 Because of your raging against me,
and because your arrogance has come up
into 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 by
which you came.
30 “ ‘This shall be the sign to you: You will
eat this year that which grows ofitself, and
in the second year that which springs from
it; and in the third year sow and reap and
plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.
31 The remnant that is escaped of the
house of Judah will again take root
downward, and bear fruit upward.
32 For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go
out, and survivors will escape from Mount
Zion. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will
perform this.’
33 “Therefore Yahweh says concerning
the king of Assyria, ‘He willnot come to this
city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither will
he come before it with shield, nor cast up a
mound against it.
34 He will return the way that he came,
and he won’t come to this city,’ says Yahweh.
35 ‘For I will defend this city to save it, for
my own sake, and for my servant David’s
sake.
36 Then Yahweh’s angel went out and
struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the camp of the Assyrians.
When men arose early in the morning,
behold, these were all dead bodies.
37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria
departed, went away, returned to Nineveh,
and stayed there.
38 As he was worshiping in the house
of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and
Sharezer his sons struck him with the
sword; and they escaped into the land of
Ararat. Esar Haddon his son reigned in his
place.