Isaiah 37:1-25

37:1 When King Hezekiah heard this, ¹  he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and went to the Lord’s temple. 37:2 Eliakim the palace supervisor, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, ²  clothed in sackcloth, sent this message to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz: 37:3 “This is what Hezekiah says: ³  ‘This is a day of distress, insults, ⁴  and humiliation, ⁵  as when a baby is ready to leave the birth canal, but the mother lacks the strength to push it through. ⁶  37:4 Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all these things the chief adviser has spoken on behalf of his master, the king of Assyria, who sent him to taunt the living God. ⁷  When the Lord your God hears, perhaps he will punish him for the things he has said. ⁸  So pray for this remnant that remains.’” ⁹ 

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  37:9 The king ¹⁴  heard that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia ¹⁵  was marching out to fight him. ¹⁶  He again sent ¹⁷  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. ¹⁸  Do you really think you will be rescued? ¹⁹  37:12 Were the nations whom my predecessors ²⁰  destroyed – the nations of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden in Telassar – rescued by their gods? ²¹  37:13 Where are the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the kings of Lair, ²²  Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”

37:14 Hezekiah took the letter ²³  from the messengers and read it. ²⁴  Then Hezekiah went up to the Lord’s temple and spread it out before the Lord. 37:15 Hezekiah prayed before the Lord: 37:16 “O Lord who commands armies, O God of Israel, who is enthroned on the cherubim! ²⁵  You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the sky ²⁶  and the earth. 37:17 Pay attention, Lord, and hear! Open your eyes, Lord, and observe! Listen to this entire message Sennacherib sent and how he taunts the living God! ²⁷  37:18 It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all the nations ²⁸  and their lands. 37:19 They have burned the gods of the nations, ²⁹  for they are not really gods, but only the product of human hands manufactured from wood and stone. That is why the Assyrians could destroy them. ³⁰  37:20 Now, O Lord our God, rescue us from his power, so all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.” ³¹ 

37:21 Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘Because you prayed to me concerning King Sennacherib of Assyria, ³²  37:22 this is what the Lord says about him: ³³ 

“The virgin daughter Zion ³⁴ 

despises you – she makes fun of you;

daughter Jerusalem

shakes her head after you. ³⁵ 

37:23 Whom have you taunted and hurled insults at?

At whom have you shouted

and looked so arrogantly? ³⁶ 

At the Holy One of Israel! ³⁷ 

37:24 Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master, ³⁸ 

‘With my many chariots I climbed up

the high mountains,

the slopes of Lebanon.

I cut down its tall cedars

and its best evergreens.

I invaded its most remote regions, ³⁹ 

its thickest woods.

37:25 I dug wells

and drank water. ⁴⁰ 

With the soles of my feet I dried up

all the rivers of Egypt.’

[37:1]  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.

[37:2]  ² tn Heb “elders of the priests” (so KJV, NAB, NASB); NCV “the older priests”; NRSV, TEV, CEV “the senior priests.”

[37:3]  ³ tn In the Hebrew text this verse begins with “they said to him” (cf. NRSV).

[37:3]  ⁴ tn Or “rebuke” (KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV), or “correction.”

[37:3]  ⁵ tn Or “contempt”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “disgrace.”

[37:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “when sons come to the cervical opening and there is no strength to give birth.”

[37:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “all the words of the chief adviser whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to taunt the living God.”

[37:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “and rebuke the words which the Lord your God hears.”

[37:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “and lift up a prayer on behalf of the remnant that is found.”

[37:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “by which the servants of the king of Assyria have insulted me.”

[37:7]  ¹¹ 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.

[37:7]  ¹² tn Heb “cause him to fall” (so KJV, ASV, NAB), that is, “kill him.”

[37:8]  ¹³ 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.”

[37:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[37:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Cush” (so NASB); NIV, NCV “the Cushite king of Egypt.”

[37:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, ‘He has come out to fight with you.’”

[37:9]  ¹⁷ 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.”

[37:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, annihilating them.”

[37:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and will you be rescued?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “No, of course not!”

[37:12]  ²⁰ tn Heb “fathers” (so KJV, NAB, NASB); NIV “forefathers”; NCV “ancestors.”

[37:12]  ²¹ 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?”

[37:13]  ²² sn Lair was a city located in northeastern Babylon. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 235.

[37:14]  ²³ tc The Hebrew text has the plural, “letters.” The final mem (ם) may be dittographic (note the initial mem on the form that immediately follows). Some Greek and Aramaic witnesses have the singular. If so, one still has to deal with the yod that is part of the plural ending. J. N. Oswalt refers to various commentators who have suggested ways to understand the plural form (Isaiah [NICOT], 1:652).

[37:14]  ²⁴ tn In the parallel text in 2 Kgs 19:14 the verb has the plural suffix, “them,” but this probably reflects a later harmonization to the preceding textual corruption (of “letter” to “letters”).

[37:16]  ²⁵ sn Cherubim (singular “cherub”) refers to the images of winged angelic creatures that were above the ark of the covenant.

[37:16]  ²⁶ tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[37:17]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Hear all the words of Sennacherib which he sent to taunt the living God.”

[37:18]  ²⁸ tn The Hebrew text here has “all the lands,” but the parallel text in 2 Kgs 19:17 has “the nations.”

[37:19]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and they put their gods in the fire.”

[37:19]  ³⁰ tn Heb “so they destroyed them” (NASB similar).

[37:20]  ³¹ tn The parallel text in 2 Kgs 19:19 reads, “that you, Lord, are the only God.”

[37:21]  ³² tn The parallel text in 2 Kgs 19:20 reads, “That which you prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.” The verb “I have heard” does not appear in Isa 37:21, where אֲשֶׁר (’asher) probably has a causal sense: “because.”

[37:22]  ³³ tn Heb “this is the word which the Lord has spoken about him.”

[37:22]  ³⁴ sn Zion (Jerusalem) is pictured here as a young, vulnerable daughter whose purity is being threatened by the would-be Assyrian rapist. The personification hints at the reality which the young girls of the city would face if the Assyrians conquer it.

[37:22]  ³⁵ sn Shaking the head was a mocking gesture of derision.

[37:23]  ³⁶ tn Heb “and lifted your eyes on high?” Cf. NIV “lifted your eyes in pride”; NRSV “haughtily lifted your eyes.”

[37:23]  ³⁷ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[37:24]  ³⁸ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[37:24]  ³⁹ tn Heb “the height of its extremity”; ASV “its farthest height.”

[37:25]  ⁴⁰ tc The Hebrew text has simply, “I dug and drank water.” But the parallel text in 2 Kgs 19:24 has “foreign waters.” זָרִים (zarim, “foreign”) may have accidentally dropped out of the Isaianic text by homoioteleuton (cf. NCV, NIV, NLT). Note that the preceding word, מַיִם (mayim, “water) also ends in mem (ם). The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has “foreign waters” for this line. However, in several other passages the 1QIsa^a scroll harmonizes with 2 Kgs 19 against the MT (Isa 36:5; 37:9, 20). Since the addition of “foreign” to this text in Isaiah by a later scribe would be more likely than its deletion, the MT reading should be accepted.