Isaiah 37 - New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah’s Help

37 Now ^(A)when King Hezekiah heard the report, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and entered the house of the Lord. ² Then he sent ^(B)Eliakim, who was in charge of the household, with ^(C)Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to ^(D)Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. ³ And they said to him, “This is what Hezekiah says: ‘This day is a ^(E)day of distress, rebuke, and humiliation; for ^(F)children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to ^[a]deliver them. ⁴ Perhaps the Lord your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to ^(G)taunt the living God, and will avenge the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for ^(H)the remnant that is left.’”

⁵ So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. ⁶ And Isaiah said to them, “This is what you shall say to your master: ‘This is what the Lord says: “^(I)Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. ⁷ Behold, I am going to put a spirit in him so that he will ^(J)hear news and ^(K)return to his own land. And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.”’”

⁸ Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against ^(L)Libnah, for he had heard that ^[b]the king had left ^(M)Lachish. ⁹ Now he ^(N)heard them say regarding Tirhakah king of ^[c](O)Cush, “He has come out to fight against you,” and when he heard it he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰ “This is what you shall say to Hezekiah king of ^[d]Judah: ‘^(P)Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by saying, “Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.” ^{11 (Q)}Behold, you yourself have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them completely. So will you be saved? ¹² Did the gods of the nations which my fathers destroyed save them: ^(R)Gozan, ^(S)Haran, Rezeph, and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar? ¹³ Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah?’”

Hezekiah’s Prayer in the Temple

¹⁴ Then Hezekiah took the ^[e]letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the Lord and ^[f]spread it out before the Lord. ¹⁵ Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying, ¹⁶ “Lord of armies, God of Israel, ^(T)who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the ^(U)God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. ^(V)You made heaven and earth. ^{17 (W)}Incline Your ear, Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, Lord, and see; and ^(X)listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to ^(Y)taunt the living God. ¹⁸ Truly, Lord, the ^(Z)kings of Assyria have laid waste all the countries and their lands, ¹⁹ and have thrown their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but only the ^(AA)work of human hands, wood and stone. So they have ^(AB)destroyed them. ²⁰ But now Lord, our God, ^(AC)save us from his hand, so that ^(AD)all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, ^[g]Lord, are God.”

God Answers through Isaiah

²¹ Then ^(AE)Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, ²² this is the word that the Lord has spoken against him:

“She has shown contempt for you and derided you,
The ^(AF)virgin ^(AG)daughter of Zion;
The daughter of Jerusalem has ^(AH)shaken her head behind you!
²³ Whom have you ^(AI)taunted and blasphemed?
And against whom have you raised your voice
And ^[h]haughtily ^(AJ)raised your eyes?
Against the ^(AK)Holy One of Israel!
²⁴ Through your servants you have taunted the Lord,
And you have said, ‘With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains,
To the remotest parts of ^(AL)Lebanon;
And I cut down its tall ^(AM)cedars and its choice junipers.
And I will come to its ^[i]highest peak, its thickest ^(AN)forest.
²⁵ I dug wells and drank waters,
And ^(AO)with the sole of my feet I dried up
All the canals of ^[j]Egypt.’
^{26 (AP)}Have you not heard?
Long ago I did it,
From ancient times I ^(AQ)planned it.
Now ^(AR)I have brought it about
That ^(AS)you would turn fortified cities into ^(AT)ruined heaps.
²⁷ Therefore their inhabitants were ^[k]powerless,
They were shattered and put to shame;
They were like the ^(AU)vegetation of the field and the green grass,
Like ^(AV)grass on the housetops ^[l]that is scorched before it has grown.
²⁸ But I ^(AW)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 ^(AX)complacency has come up to My ears,
I will put My ^(AY)hook in your nose
And My ^(AZ)bridle in your lips,
And I will turn you back ^(BA)by the way that you came.

³⁰ “Then this shall be the sign for you: ^[m]you will eat this year what ^(BB)grows of itself, in the second year what grows from the same, and in the third year sow, harvest, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. ³¹ The ^(BC)survivors that are ^(BD)left of the house of Judah will again ^(BE)take root downward and bear fruit upward. ³² For out of Jerusalem a ^(BF)remnant will go, and out of Mount Zion survivors. The ^(BG)zeal of the Lord of armies will perform this.”’

³³ “Therefore, this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria: ‘He will not come to this city nor shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield, nor heap up an ^(BH)assault ramp against it. ^{34 (BI)}By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he will not come to this city,’ declares the Lord. ³⁵ ‘For I will ^(BJ)protect this city to save it ^(BK)for My own sake, and for My servant David’s sake.’”

Assyrians Destroyed

³⁶ Then the ^(BL)angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when the rest got up early in the morning, behold, all of ^[n]the 185,000 were ^[o]dead. ³⁷ So Sennacherib the king of Assyria departed and ^[p]returned home and lived in ^(BM)Nineveh. ³⁸ Then it came about, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword; and they escaped to the land of ^(BN)Ararat. And his son ^(BO)Esarhaddon became king in his place.

Footnotes

1. Isaiah 37:3 Lit give birth
2. Isaiah 37:8 Lit he
3. Isaiah 37:9 Or Ethiopia
4. Isaiah 37:10 Lit Judah, saying
5. Isaiah 37:14 Lit letters
6. Isaiah 37:14 Lit Hezekiah spread
7. Isaiah 37:20 As in DSS and 2 Kin 19:19; MT are the Lord
8. Isaiah 37:23 Lit on high
9. Isaiah 37:24 Lit farthest height
10. Isaiah 37:25 Or the besieged place
11. Isaiah 37:27 Lit short of hand
12. Isaiah 37:27 As in DSS and 2 Kin 19:26; MT and as a terraced field
13. Isaiah 37:30 Lit eating
14. Isaiah 37:36 Lit them
15. Isaiah 37:36 Lit dead bodies
16. Isaiah 37:37 Lit went and returned

Cross references

1. Isaiah 37:1 : 2 Kin 19:1-37; Is 37:1-38
2. Isaiah 37:2 : Is 22:20
3. Isaiah 37:2 : Is 22:15
4. Isaiah 37:2 : Is 1:1; 20:2
5. Isaiah 37:3 : Is 22:5; 26:16; 33:2
6. Isaiah 37:3 : Is 26:17, 18; 66:9; Hos 13:13
7. Isaiah 37:4 : Is 36:13-15, 18, 20
8. Isaiah 37:4 : Is 1:9; 10:20-22; 37:31, 32; 46:3
9. Isaiah 37:6 : Is 7:4; 35:4
10. Isaiah 37:7 : Is 37:9
11. Isaiah 37:7 : Is 37:37, 38
12. Isaiah 37:8 : Num 33:20; Josh 10:29
13. Isaiah 37:8 : Josh 10:31, 32
14. Isaiah 37:9 : Is 37:7
15. Isaiah 37:9 : Is 18:1; 20:5
16. Isaiah 37:10 : Is 36:15
17. Isaiah 37:11 : Is 10:9-11; 36:18-20
18. Isaiah 37:12 : 2 Kin 17:6; 18:11
19. Isaiah 37:12 : Gen 11:31; 12:1-4; Acts 7:2
20. Isaiah 37:16 : Ex 25:22; 1 Sam 4:4; Ps 80:1; 99:1
21. Isaiah 37:16 : Deut 10:17; Ps 86:10; 136:2, 3
22. Isaiah 37:16 : Is 42:5; 45:12; Jer 10:12
23. Isaiah 37:17 : 2 Chr 6:40; Ps 17:6; Dan 9:18
24. Isaiah 37:17 : Ps 74:22
25. Isaiah 37:17 : Is 37:4
26. Isaiah 37:18 : 2 Kin 15:29; 16:9; 17:6, 24; 1 Chr 5:26
27. Isaiah 37:19 : Is 2:8; 17:8; 41:24, 29
28. Isaiah 37:19 : Is 26:14
29. Isaiah 37:20 : Is 25:9; 33:22; 35:4
30. Isaiah 37:20 : 1 Kin 18:36, 37; Ps 46:10; Is 37:16; Ezek 36:23
31. Isaiah 37:21 : Is 37:2
32. Isaiah 37:22 : Jer 14:17; Lam 2:13
33. Isaiah 37:22 : Ps 9:14; Zeph 3:14; Zech 2:10
34. Isaiah 37:22 : Job 16:4
35. Isaiah 37:23 : Is 37:4
36. Isaiah 37:23 : Is 2:11; 5:15, 21
37. Isaiah 37:23 : Ezek 39:7; Hab 1:12
38. Isaiah 37:24 : Is 10:33, 34
39. Isaiah 37:24 : Is 14:8
40. Isaiah 37:24 : Is 10:18
41. Isaiah 37:25 : Deut 11:10; 1 Kin 20:10
42. Isaiah 37:26 : Is 40:21, 28
43. Isaiah 37:26 : Acts 2:23; 4:27, 28; 1 Pet 2:8
44. Isaiah 37:26 : Is 46:11
45. Isaiah 37:26 : Is 10:6
46. Isaiah 37:26 : Is 17:1; 25:2
47. Isaiah 37:27 : Is 40:7
48. Isaiah 37:27 : Ps 129:6
49. Isaiah 37:28 : Ps 139:1
50. Isaiah 37:29 : Is 10:12
51. Isaiah 37:29 : Ezek 29:4; 38:4
52. Isaiah 37:29 : Is 30:28
53. Isaiah 37:29 : Is 37:34
54. Isaiah 37:30 : Lev 25:5, 11
55. Isaiah 37:31 : Is 4:2; 10:20
56. Isaiah 37:31 : Is 37:4
57. Isaiah 37:31 : Is 27:6
58. Isaiah 37:32 : Is 37:4
59. Isaiah 37:32 : 2 Kin 19:31; Is 9:7; 59:17; Joel 2:18; Zech 1:14
60. Isaiah 37:33 : Jer 6:6; 32:24
61. Isaiah 37:34 : Is 37:29
62. Isaiah 37:35 : 2 Kin 20:6; Is 31:5; 38:6
63. Isaiah 37:35 : Is 43:25; 48:9, 11
64. Isaiah 37:36 : 2 Kin 19:35; Is 10:12, 33, 34
65. Isaiah 37:37 : Gen 10:11; Jon 1:2; 3:3; 4:11; Zeph 2:13
66. Isaiah 37:38 : Gen 8:4; Jer 51:27
67. Isaiah 37:38 : Ezra 4:2