Isaiah 35-36

Easy-to-Read Version

God Will Comfort His People

35 The dry desert will rejoice. The desert will be glad and blossom. ² It will be covered with flowers and dance with joy. It will be as beautiful as the forest of Lebanon, the hill of Carmel, and the Sharon Valley. This will happen because all people will see the Glory of the Lord. They will see the beauty of our God.

³ Make the weak arms strong again. Strengthen the weak knees. ⁴ People are afraid and confused. Say to them, “Be strong! Don’t be afraid!” Look, your God will come and punish your enemies. He will come and give you your reward. He will save you. ⁵ Then the eyes of the blind will be opened so that they can see, and the ears of the deaf will be opened so that they can hear. ⁶ Crippled people will dance like deer, and those who cannot speak now will use their voices to sing happy songs. This will happen when springs of water begin to flow in the dry desert. ⁷ Now people see mirages^[a] that look like water, but then there will be real pools of water. There will be wells in the dry land where water flows from the ground. Tall water plants will grow where wild animals once ruled.

⁸ There will be a road there. This highway will be called “The Holy Road.” Evil people will not be allowed to walk on that road. No fools^[b] will walk on it. Only good people will walk there. ⁹ There will be no dangers on that road. There will be no lions there to hurt people or any dangerous animals on it. That road will be for the people God saves.

¹⁰ The Lord will make his people free, and they will come back to him. They will come into Zion rejoicing. They will be happy forever. Their happiness will be like a crown on their heads. Gladness and joy will fill them completely. Sorrow and sadness will be far, far away.

The Assyrians Invade Judah

36 During Hezekiah’s 14th year as king, Sennacherib king of Assyria went to fight against all the strong cities of Judah. Sennacherib defeated those cities. ² He sent his commander with a large army to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. The commander and his army left Lachish and went to Jerusalem. They stopped near the aqueduct^[c] by the Upper Pool,^[d] on the street that leads up to Laundryman’s Field.

³ Three men from Jerusalem went out to talk with the commander. These men were Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Joah son of Asaph, and Shebna. Eliakim was the palace manager, Joah was the record keeper, and Shebna was the royal secretary.

⁴ The commander told them, “Tell Hezekiah this is what the great king, the king of Assyria says:

“‘What are you trusting in to help you? ⁵ I tell you, if you are trusting in power and great battle plans, that is useless. Those are nothing but empty words. Now I ask you, who do you trust so much that you are willing to rebel against me? ⁶ Are you depending on Egypt to help you? Egypt is like a broken walking stick. If you lean on it for support, it will only stab you and hurt you. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, cannot be trusted by anyone who depends on him for help.

⁷ “‘So maybe you will say, “We trust the Lord our God to help us.” But Hezekiah destroyed the altars and high places where people worshiped your God, right? Hezekiah told the people of Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship only at this one altar here in Jerusalem.”

⁸ “‘If you still want to fight, my master, the king of Assyria, will make this agreement with you. I promise that I will give you 2000 horses if you can find enough men to ride them into battle. ⁹ But even then, you couldn’t beat even one of my master’s lowest ranking officers. So why do you still depend on Egypt’s chariots and horse soldiers?

¹⁰ “‘Now, do you think I came to this country to destroy it without the Lord’s help. No, it was the Lord who said to me, “Go up against this country and destroy it!”’”

¹¹ Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the commander, “Please, speak to us in Hebrew.^[e] We understand that language. Don’t speak to us in the language of Judah. If you use our language, the people on the city walls will understand you.”

¹² But the commander said, “My master sent me to speak to everyone, not just to you and your master. I must also speak to those people sitting there on the wall. When we surround your city, they will suffer too. Like you, they will become so hungry they will eat their own waste and drink their own urine!”

¹³ Then the commander, shouting loudly in Hebrew,^[f] gave this warning to them all:

Hear this message from the great king, the king of Assyria! ¹⁴ This is what the king says: Don’t let Hezekiah fool you! He cannot save you from my power. ¹⁵ Don’t listen to him when he tells you to trust in the Lord. Don’t believe him when he says, “The Lord will save us. He will not let the king of Assyria defeat the city.”

¹⁶ Don’t listen to Hezekiah! This is what the king of Assyria says: Come out here and show me that you want peace. Then you will all be free to have grapes from your own vines, figs from your own trees, and water from your own well. ¹⁷ After some time, I will come and take you to a land like your own. In that new land, you will have plenty of grain for making bread and vineyards for producing wine.

¹⁸ Don’t believe Hezekiah when he tells you, “The Lord will save us.” He is wrong. Did any of the gods of other nations save their land from the king of Assyria? ¹⁹ When I destroyed the cities of Hamath and Arpad, where were their gods? What about the gods of Sepharvaim? Were any gods able to save Samaria from my power? ²⁰ None of the gods of these other places were able to save their land from me! So why do you think the Lord can save Jerusalem from me?

²¹ But the people were silent. They did not say a word to the commander, because King Hezekiah had commanded them, “Don’t say anything to him.”

²² Then the palace manager (Eliakim son of Hilkiah), the royal secretary (Shebna), and the record keeper (Joah son of Asaph) went to Hezekiah. Their clothes were torn to show they were upset. They told Hezekiah everything the Assyrian commander had said.