Isaiah’s Message of Deliverance
(Isaiah 37:1–7)

1And it came to pass when King Hezekiah heard it that he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of YHWH. 2And he sent Eliakim who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covering themselves with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet son of Amoz. 3And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and blasphemy, for the sons have come to birth, and there is no strength to bring forth. 4Perhaps YHWH your God will hear all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to reproach the living God, and he will decide concerning the words that YHWH your God has heard. And you shall lift up a prayer for the remnant that is found.”

5And the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 6And Isaiah said to them, “Thus you⁺ shall say to your⁺ master, thus says YHWH: ‘Do not be afraid in the face of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. 7Surely I will send upon him a spirit, and he will hear a report and return to his own land, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.’”

Sennacherib’s Blasphemous Letter
(Isaiah 37:8–13)

8And the Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he had heard that he had pulled out from Lachish.

9And he heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush,† saying, “Behold, he has come out to make war with you.”

And he turned and sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10“Thus you⁺ shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying:

‘Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. 11Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, devoting them to destruction.† And shall you be delivered? 12Have the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers destroyed—Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar? 13Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?’”

Hezekiah’s Prayer
(Isaiah 37:14–20)

14And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and he read it and went up to the house of YHWH. And Hezekiah spread it out before the face of YHWH. 15And Hezekiah prayed before the face of YHWH and said,

“O YHWH, God of Israel, dwelling between the cherubim, You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made the heavens and the earth. 16Incline, O YHWH, Your ear, and hear; open, O YHWH, Your eyes, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God.

17Truly, O YHWH, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands, 18and they have given their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but rather the work of the hands of men—wood and stone. And they have destroyed them.

19And now, O YHWH our God, save us, please, from his hand, and all the kingdoms of the earth will know that You, O YHWH, are God—you alone.”

Sennacherib’s Fall Prophesied
(Isaiah 37:21–35)

20And Isaiah son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says YHWH, God of Israel: Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard. 21This is the word that YHWH has spoken concerning him:

‘She despises you and mocks you,

the virgin daughter of Zion.

Behind you she has shaken her head,

the daughter of Jerusalem.

22Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?

And against whom have you raised your voice,

and lifted up on high your eyes?

Against the Holy One of Israel!

23By your messengers you have reproached the Lord,

and you have said:

“By the multitude of my chariots

I have come up

to the height of the mountains,

to the limits of Lebanon.

And I will cut down the height of its cedars,

the choice of its cypresses,†

and I will enter the ends of its borders,

the forest of its orchard.

24I have dug

and I have drunk strange waters,

and I have dried up with the soles of my feet

all the brooks of Egypt.”

25Did you not hear?

Long ago I made it,

and from ancient times I formed it.

Now I have brought it to pass,

that you should be for crushing into heaps of ruins

fortified cities.

26Therefore their dwellers are feeble of hand;

they are dismayed and ashamed.

They were as the grass of the field,

and the greenness of the tender grass,

as the grass of the roofs,

and blighted before the face of standing grain.

27And your dwelling place, and Your going out,

and your coming in I know—

and your raging against Me.

28Because your raging against me and your tumult

have come up to My ears,

I will put My hook in your nose

and My bridle in your lips,

and I will turn you back

by the way in which you came.’

29And this is a sign to you:

You shall eat this year

what grows on its own,

and in the second year

what springs from the same.

And in the third year you will sow and reap;

and you will plant vineyards and eat their fruits.

30And it will continue—the escaped of the house of Judah,

the remnant, a root downward,

and it will make fruit upward.

31For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant,

and those who escape from Mount Zion.

The zeal of YHWH of Hosts† will do this.

32Therefore thus says YHWH concerning the king of Assyria:

‘He shall not come into this city,

nor will he shoot an arrow there,

nor come before it with shield,

nor build a mound against it.

33By the way that he came in he will return,

and into this city he shall not come,’

a declaration of YHWH.

34‘For I will cover over this city

to save it

for My own sake,

and for the sake of David My servant.’”

Jerusalem Delivered from the Assyrians
(2 Chronicles 32:20–23; Isaiah 37:36–38)

35And it came to pass on that night that the angel of YHWH went out, and he struck in the camp of Assyria a hundred eighty-five thousand; and they rose early in the morning, and behold, all were dead corpses! 36And Sennacherib king of Assyria pulled out and went away, and he returned and dwelt in Nineveh.

37And it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the temple of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer† struck him down with the sword, and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esar-haddon his son reigned in his place.

Footnotes:

9 That is, the upper Nile region
11 Forms of the Hebrew cherem refer to the giving over of things or persons to YHWH, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering.
23 Or pines or junipers or firs
31 LXX, many Hebrew manuscripts, and an alternate MT reading; the other alternate reads The zeal of YHWH.
37 LXX and an alternate MT reading (see also Isaiah 37:38); MT lacks his sons.