Isaiah 37:9-13

37:9 The king ¹  heard that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia ²  was marching out to fight him. ³  He again sent ⁴  messengers to Hezekiah, ordering them: 37:10 “Tell King Hezekiah of Judah this: ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust mislead you when he says, “Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.” 37:11 Certainly you have heard how the kings of Assyria have annihilated all lands. ⁵  Do you really think you will be rescued? ⁶  37:12 Were the nations whom my predecessors ⁷  destroyed – the nations of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden in Telassar – rescued by their gods? ⁸  37:13 Where are the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the kings of Lair, ⁹  Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”

¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “Cush” (so NASB); NIV, NCV “the Cushite king of Egypt.”

³ tn Heb “heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, ‘He has come out to fight with you.’”

⁴ tn The Hebrew text has, “and he heard and he sent,” but the parallel in 2 Kgs 19:9 has וַיָּשָׁב וַיִּשְׁלַח (vayyashav vayyishlakh, “and he returned and he sent”), i.e., “he again sent.”

⁵ tn Heb “Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, annihilating them.”

⁶ tn Heb “and will you be rescued?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “No, of course not!”

⁷ tn Heb “fathers” (so KJV, NAB, NASB); NIV “forefathers”; NCV “ancestors.”

⁸ tn Heb “Did the gods of the nations whom my fathers destroyed rescue them – Gozan and Haran, and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who are in Telassar?”

⁹ sn Lair was a city located in northeastern Babylon. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 235.