37:5 When King Hezekiah’s servants came to Isaiah, 37:6 Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master this: ‘This is what the Lord says: “Don’t be afraid because of the things you have heard – these insults the king of Assyria’s servants have hurled against me. 10 37:7 Look, I will take control of his mind; 11 he will receive a report and return to his own land. I will cut him down 12 with a sword in his own land.”’”
37:8 When the chief adviser heard the king of Assyria had departed from Lachish, he left and went to Libnah, where the king was campaigning. 13
1 tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.
2 tn Heb “elders of the priests” (so KJV, NAB, NASB); NCV “the older priests”; NRSV, TEV, CEV “the senior priests.”
3 tn In the Hebrew text this verse begins with “they said to him” (cf. NRSV).
4 tn Or “rebuke” (KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV), or “correction.”
5 tn Or “contempt”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “disgrace.”
6 tn Heb “when sons come to the cervical opening and there is no strength to give birth.”
4 tn Heb “all the words of the chief adviser whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to taunt the living God.”
5 tn Heb “and rebuke the words which the Lord your God hears.”
6 tn Heb “and lift up a prayer on behalf of the remnant that is found.”
5 tn Heb “by which the servants of the king of Assyria have insulted me.”
6 tn Heb “I will put in him a spirit.” The precise sense of רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”) is uncertain in this context. It may refer to a spiritual being who will take control of his mind (see 1 Kgs 22:19), or it could refer to a disposition of concern and fear. In either case the Lord’s sovereignty over the king is apparent.
7 tn Heb “cause him to fall” (so KJV, ASV, NAB), that is, “kill him.”
7 tn Heb “and the chief adviser returned and he found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he heard that he had departed from Lachish.”