Isaiah 37

• 1. When King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the Temple of the LORD to pray.
• 2. And he sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the court secretary, and the leading priests, all dressed in sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.
• 3. They told him, "This is what King Hezekiah says: This is a day of trouble, insult, and disgrace. It is like when a child is ready to be born, but the mother has no strength to deliver it.
• 4. But perhaps the LORD your God has heard the Assyrian representative defying the living God and will punish him for his words. Oh, pray for those of us who are left!"
• 5. After King Hezekiah's officials delivered the king's message to Isaiah,
• 6. the 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.
• 7. Listen! I myself will make sure that the king will receive a report from Assyria telling him that he is needed at home. Then I will make him want to return to his land, where I will have him killed with a sword.'"
• 8. Meanwhile, the Assyrian representative left Jerusalem and went to consult his king, who had left Lachish and was attacking Libnah.
• 9. Soon 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 this message back to Hezekiah in Jerusalem:
• 10. "This message is for King Hezekiah of Judah. Don't let this God you trust deceive you with promises that Jerusalem will not be captured by the king of Assyria.
• 11. You know perfectly well what the kings of Assyria have done wherever they have gone. They have crushed everyone who stood in their way! Why should you be any different?
• 12. Have the gods of other nations rescued them--such nations as Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Tel-assar? The former kings of Assyria destroyed them all!
• 13. What happened to the king of Hamath and the king of Arpad? What happened to the kings of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?"
• 14. After Hezekiah received the letter and read it, he went up to the LORD's Temple and spread it out before the LORD.
• 15. And Hezekiah prayed this prayer before the LORD:
• 16. "O LORD Almighty, 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.
• 17. Listen to me, O LORD, and hear! Open your eyes, O LORD, and see! Listen to Sennacherib's words of defiance against the living God.
• 18. "It is true, LORD, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all these nations, just as the message says.
• 19. And 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.
• 20. Now, 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."
• 21. Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: This is my answer to your prayer concerning King Sennacherib of Assyria.
• 22. This is the message that the LORD has spoken against him: `The virgin daughter of Zion despises you and laughs at you. The daughter of Jerusalem scoffs and shakes her head as you flee.
• 23. `Whom do you think you have been insulting and ridiculing? Against whom did you raise your voice? At whom did you look in such proud condescension? It was the Holy One of Israel!
• 24. By your messengers you have mocked 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 choicest cypress trees. I have reached its farthest corners and explored its deepest forests.
• 25. I have dug wells in many a foreign land and refreshed myself with their water. I even stopped up the rivers of Egypt so that my armies could go across!"
• 26. `But have you not heard? It was I, the LORD, who decided this long ago. Long ago I planned what I am now causing to happen, that you should crush fortified cities into heaps of rubble.
• 27. That is why their people have so little power and are such easy prey for you. They are as helpless as the grass, as easily trampled as tender green shoots. They are like grass sprouting on a housetop, easily scorched by the sun.
• 28. `But I know you well--your comings and goings and all you do. I know the way you have raged against me.
• 29. And because of your arrogance against me, which I have heard for myself, I will put my hook in your nose and my bridle in your mouth. I will make you return by the road on which you came.'"
• 30. Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Here is the proof that the LORD will protect this city from Assyria's king. 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.
• 31. And you who are left in Judah, who have escaped the ravages of the siege, will take root again in your own soil, and you will flourish and multiply.
• 32. For a remnant of my people will spread out from Jerusalem, a group of survivors from Mount Zion. The passion of the LORD Almighty will make this happen!
• 33. "And this is what the LORD says about the king of Assyria: His armies will not enter Jerusalem to shoot their arrows. They will not march outside its gates with their shields and build banks of earth against its walls.
• 34. The king will return to his own country by the road on which he came. He will not enter this city, says the LORD.
• 35. For my own honor and for the sake of my servant David, I will defend it."
• 36. That night the angel of the LORD went out to the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 Assyrian troops. When the surviving Assyrians woke up the next morning, they found corpses everywhere.
• 37. Then King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and returned to his own land. He went home to his capital of Nineveh and stayed there.
• 38. One 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.

Isaiah 38

• 1. About 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."
• 2. When Hezekiah heard this, he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD,
• 3. "Remember, O LORD, how I have always tried to be faithful to you and do what is pleasing in your sight." Then he broke down and wept bitterly.
• 4. Then this message came to Isaiah from the LORD:
• 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,
• 6. and I will rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria. Yes, I will defend this city.
• 7. " `And this is the sign that the LORD will give you to prove he will do as he promised:
• 8. I 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.
• 9. When King Hezekiah was well again, he wrote this poem about his experience:
• 10. I said, "In the prime of my life, must I now enter the place of the dead? Am I to be robbed of my normal years?"
• 11. I 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 laugh with those who live in this world.
• 12. My 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.
• 13. I waited patiently all night, but I was torn apart as though by lions. Suddenly, my life was over.
• 14. Delirious, 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!"
• 15. But what could I say? For he himself had sent this sickness. Now I will walk humbly throughout my years because of this anguish I have felt.
• 16. Lord, your discipline is good, for it leads to life and health. You have restored my health and have allowed me to live!
• 17. Yes, it was good for me to suffer this anguish, for you have rescued me from death and have forgiven all my sins.
• 18. For the dead cannot praise you; they cannot raise their voices in praise. Those who go down to destruction can no longer hope in your faithfulness.
• 19. Only the living can praise you as I do today. Each generation can make known your faithfulness to the next.
• 20. Think of it--the LORD has healed me! I will sing his praises with instruments every day of my life in the Temple of the LORD.
• 21. Isaiah had said to Hezekiah's servants, "Make an ointment from figs and spread it over the boil, and Hezekiah will recover."
• 22. And Hezekiah had asked, "What sign will prove that I will go to the Temple of the LORD three days from now?"

Isaiah 39

• 1. Soon 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.
• 2. Hezekiah welcomed 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 all his other treasures--everything! There was nothing in his palace or kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.
• 3. Then 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."
• 4. "What did they see in your palace?" asked Isaiah. "They saw everything," Hezekiah replied. "I showed them everything I own--all my treasures."
• 5. Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Listen to this message from the LORD Almighty:
• 6. The time is coming when everything you have--all the treasures stored up by your ancestors--will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD.
• 7. Some of your own descendants will be taken away into exile. They will become eunuchs who will serve in the palace of Babylon's king."
• 8. Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "This message you have given me from the LORD is good." But the king was thinking, "At least there will be peace and security during my lifetime."

New Living Translation: 249 of 324 days.