Yesha`yahu, starting at chapter 37
{37:1} It happened, when king Hizkiyahu heard it, that he tore his
clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house
of the LORD. {37:2} He sent Elyakim, who was over the household, and
Shevna the [1>]Sofer[<1], and the Zakenim of the [2>]Kohanim[<2],
covered with sackcloth, to Yesha`yahu the prophet the son of Amotz.
{37:3} They said to him, Thus says Hizkiyahu, This day is a day of
trouble, and of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have come
to the birth, and there is no strength to bring forth. {37:4} It may
be the LORD your God will hear the words of Ravshakeh, whom the king
of Ashshur his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke
the words which the LORD your God has heard. Therefore lift up your
prayer for the remnant that is left. {37:5} So the servants of king
Hizkiyahu came to Yesha`yahu. {37:6} Yesha`yahu said to them, Thus
shall you tell your master, Thus says the LORD, Don't be afraid of the
words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of
Ashshur have blasphemed me. {37:7} Behold, I will put a spirit in him,
and he shall hear news, and shall return to his own land; and I will
cause him to fall by the sword in his own land. {37:8} So Ravshakeh
returned, and found the king of Ashshur warring against Livna; for he
had heard that he was departed from Lakhish. {37:9} He heard say
concerning Tirhakah king of Kush, He is come out to fight against you.
When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hizkiyahu, saying, {37:10}
Thus shall you speak to Hizkiyahu king of Yehudah, saying, Don't let
your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Yerushalayim shall not
be given into the hand of the king of Ashshur. {37:11} Behold, you
have heard what the kings of Ashshur have done to all lands, by
destroying them utterly: and shall you be delivered? {37:12} Have the
gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed,
Gozan, and Haran, and Retzef, and the children of `Eden who were in
Telassar? {37:13} Where is the king of Hamat, and the king of Arpad,
and the king of the city of Sefarvayim, of Hena, and `Ivvah? {37:14}
Hizkiyahu received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and
read it; and Hizkiyahu went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it
before the LORD. {37:15} Hizkiyahu prayed to the LORD, saying, {37:16}
LORD of hosts, the God of Yisra'el, who sits [above] the Keruvim, you
are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the [3>]eretz[<3];
you have made heaven and [4>]eretz[<4]. {37:17} Turn your ear, LORD,
and hear; open your eyes, LORD, and behold; and hear all the words of
Sancheriv, who has sent to defy the living God. {37:18} Of a truth,
LORD, the kings of Ashshur have laid waste all the countries, and
their land, {37:19} and have cast their gods into the fire: for they
were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone; therefore
they have destroyed them. {37:20} Now therefore, LORD our God, save us
from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the [5>]eretz[<5] may know
that you are the LORD, even you only. {37:21} Then Yesha`yahu the son
of Amotz sent to Hizkiyahu, saying, Thus says the LORD, the God of
Yisra'el, Whereas you have prayed to me against Sancheriv king of
Ashshur, {37:22} this is the word which the LORD has spoken concerning
him: The virgin daughter of Tziyon has despised you and laughed you to
scorn; the daughter of Yerushalayim has shaken her head at you.
{37:23} Whom have you defied and blasphemed? and against whom have you
exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? [even] against the
Holy One of Yisra'el. {37:24} By your servants have you defied the
Lord, and have said, With the multitude of my chariots am I come up to
the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Levanon; and I
will cut down the tall cedars of it, and the choice fir trees of it;
and I will enter into its farthest height, the forest of its fruitful
field; {37:25} I have dug and drunk water, and with the sole of my
feet will I dry up all the rivers of Mitzrayim. {37:26} Have you not
heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it of ancient times? now
have I brought it to pass, that it should be your to lay waste
fortified cities into ruinous heaps. {37:27} Therefore their
inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded;
they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the
grass on the housetops, and as a field [of grain] before it is grown
up. {37:28} But I know your sitting down, and your going out, and your
coming in, and your raging against me. {37:29} Because of your raging
against me, and because your arrogance is come up into my ears,
therefore will I put my hook in your nose, and my bridle in your lips,
and I will turn you back by the way by which you came. {37:30} This
shall be the sign to you: you shall eat this year that which grows of
itself, and in the second year that which springs of the same; and in
the third year sow you, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the
fruit of it. {37:31} The remnant that is escaped of the house of
Yehudah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. {37:32}
For out of Yerushalayim shall go forth a remnant, and out of Mount
Tziyon those who shall escape. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will
perform this. {37:33} Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king
of Ashshur, He shall not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there,
neither shall he come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound
against it. {37:34} By the way that he came, by the same shall he
return, and he shall not come to this city, says the LORD. {37:35} For
I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake, and for my
servant David's sake. {37:36} The angel of the LORD went forth, and
struck in the camp of the Ashshur one hundred and eighty-five
thousand; and when men arose early in the morning, behold, these were
all dead bodies. {37:37} So Sancheriv king of Ashshur departed, and
went and returned, and lived at Nineveh. {37:38} It happened, as he
was worshipping in the house of Nisrokh his god, that Adrammelekh and
Sar'etzer his sons struck him with the sword; and they escaped into
the land of Ararat. Esar-Haddon his son reigned in his place.
{38:1} In those days was Hizkiyahu sick to death. Yesha`yahu the
prophet the son of Amotz came to him, and said to him, Thus says the
LORD, Set your house in order; for you shall die, and not live. {38:2}
Then Hizkiyahu turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the LORD,
{38:3} and said, Remember now, the LORD, I beg you, how I have walked
before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which
is good in your sight. Hizkiyahu wept sore. {38:4} Then came the word
of the LORD to Yesha`yahu, saying, {38:5} Go, and tell Hizkiyahu, Thus
says the LORD, the God of David your father, I have heard your prayer,
I have seen your tears: behold, I will add to your days fifteen years.
{38:6} I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of
Ashshur; and I will defend this city. {38:7} This shall be the sign to
you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he has
spoken: {38:8} behold, I will cause the shadow on the steps, which is
gone down on the dial of Achaz with the sun, to return backward ten
steps. So the sun returned ten steps on the dial whereon it was gone
down.
{38:9} The writing of Hizkiyahu king of Yehudah, when he had been
sick, and was recovered of his sickness.
{38:10} I said, In the noontide of my days I shall go into the gates
of She'ol:
I am deprived of the residue of my years.
{38:11} I said, I shall not see the LORD, the LORD in the land of the
living:
I shall see man no more with the inhabitants of the world.
{38:12} My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me as a
shepherd's tent:
I have rolled up, like a weaver, my life; he will cut me off from the
loom:
From day even to night will you make an end of me.
{38:13} I quieted [myself] until morning; as a lion, so he breaks all
my bones:
From day even to night will you make an end of me.
{38:14} Like a swallow [or] a crane, so did I chatter;
I did moan as a dove; my eyes fail [with looking] upward:
Lord, I am oppressed, be my collateral.
{38:15} What shall I say? he has both spoken to me, and himself has
done it:
I shall go softly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.
{38:16} Lord, by these things men live;
Wholly therein is the life of my spirit:
You restore me, and cause me to live.
{38:17} Behold, [it was] for [my] shalom [that] I had great bitterness:
But you have in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of
corruption;
For you have cast all my sins behind your back.
{38:18} For She'ol can't praise you, death can't celebrate you:
Those who go down into the pit can't hope for your truth.
{38:19} The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do this day:
The father to the children shall make known your truth.
{38:20} The LORD is [ready] to save me:
Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments
All the days of our life in the house of the LORD.
{38:21} Now Yesha`yahu had said, Let them take a cake of figs, and
lay it for a plaster on the boil, and he shall recover. {38:22}
Hizkiyahu also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the
house of the LORD?
{39:1} At that time Merodakh-Bal'odan the son of Bal'adan, king of
Bavel, sent letters and a present to Hizkiyahu; for he heard that he
had been sick, and was recovered. {39:2} Hizkiyahu was glad of them,
and shown them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the
gold, and the spices, and the precious oil, and all the house of his
armor, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in
his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hizkiyahu didn't show them.
{39:3} Then came Yesha`yahu the prophet to king Hizkiyahu, and said to
him, What said these men? and from whence came they to you? Hizkiyahu
said, They are come from a far country to me, even from Bavel. {39:4}
Then said he, What have they seen in your house? Hizkiyahu answered,
All that is in my house have they seen: there is nothing among my
treasures that I have not shown them. {39:5} Then said Yesha`yahu to
Hizkiyahu, Hear the word of the LORD of Hosts: {39:6} Behold, the days
are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your
fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to
Bavel: nothing shall be left, says the LORD. {39:7} Of your sons who
shall issue from you, whom you shall father, shall they take away; and
they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Bavel. {39:8} Then
said Hizkiyahu to Yesha`yahu, Good is the word of the LORD which you
have spoken. He said moreover, For there shall be shalom and truth in
my days.
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Footnotes:
[1] {37:2} scribe
[2] {37:2} priests
[3] {37:16} earth
[4] {37:16} earth
[5] {37:20} earth
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