37 And it came to pass when king Hezekiah heard [it], that he rent his garments, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of Jehovah.

² And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz.

³ And they said to him, Thus says Hezekiah: This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of reviling; for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.

⁴ It may be Jehovah thy God will hear the words of Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which Jehovah thy God hath heard. Therefore lift up a prayer for the remnant that is left.

⁵ And the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

⁶ And Isaiah said to them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith Jehovah: Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

⁷ Behold, I will put a spirit into him, and he shall hear tidings, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.

⁸ And Rab-shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah; for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish.

⁹ And he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He has come forth to make war with thee. And when he heard [it], he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

¹⁰ Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying: Let not thy God, upon whom thou reliest, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.

¹¹ Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all countries, destroying them utterly; and shalt thou be delivered?

¹² Have the gods of the nations which my fathers have destroyed delivered them, Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden that were in Thelassar?

¹³ Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?

¹⁴ And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up into the house of Jehovah, and spread it before Jehovah.

¹⁵ And Hezekiah prayed to Jehovah, saying,

¹⁶ Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, who sittest [between] the cherubim, thou, the Same, thou alone art the God of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made the heavens and the earth.

¹⁷ Incline thine ear, O Jehovah, and hear; open, Jehovah, thine eyes, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, who hath sent to reproach the living God.

¹⁸ Of a truth, Jehovah, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the lands, and their countries,

¹⁹ and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone; and they have destroyed them.

²⁰ And now, Jehovah our God, save us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art Jehovah, thou only.

²¹ And Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria,

²² this is the word which Jehovah hath spoken against him: The virgin-daughter of Zion despiseth thee, laugheth thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem shaketh her head at thee.

²³ Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted the voice? Against the Holy One of Israel hast thou lifted up thine eyes on high.

²⁴ By thy servants thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains, to the recesses of Lebanon; and I will cut down its tall cedars, the choice of its cypresses; and I will enter into its furthest height, [into] the forest of its fruitful field.

²⁵ I have digged and drunk water; and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the streams of Matsor.

²⁶ Hast thou not heard that long ago I did it, and that from ancient days I formed it? Now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest lay waste fortified cities [into] ruinous heaps.

²⁷ And their inhabitants were powerless, they were dismayed and put to shame; they were [as] the grass of the field and the green herb, [as] the grass on the housetops, and grain blighted before it be grown up.

²⁸ But I know thine abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy raging against me.

²⁹ Because thy raging against me and thine arrogance is come up into mine ears, I will put my ring in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will make thee go back by the way by which thou camest.

³⁰ And this [shall be] the sign unto thee: there shall be eaten this year such as groweth of itself; and in the second year that which springeth of the same; but in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards and eat the fruit thereof.

³¹ And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward;

³² for out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and out of mount Zion they that escape: the zeal of Jehovah of hosts shall do this.

³³ Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.

³⁴ By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith Jehovah.

³⁵ And I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.

³⁶ And an angel of Jehovah went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand. And when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead bodies.

³⁷ And Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and abode at Nineveh.

³⁸ And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

38 In those days Hezekiah was sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, Thus saith Jehovah: Set thy house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.

² And Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed to Jehovah,

³ and said, Ah, Jehovah, remember, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept much.

⁴ And the word of Jehovah came to Isaiah, saying,

⁵ Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of David thy father: I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add to thy days fifteen years.

⁶ And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city.

⁷ And this [shall be] the sign to thee from Jehovah, that Jehovah will do this thing that he hath spoken:

⁸ behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees which hath gone down with the sun on the dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned on the dial ten degrees, by which it had gone down.

⁹ The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:

¹⁰ I said, In the meridian of my days I shall go to the gates of Sheol: I am deprived of the rest of my years.

¹¹ I said, I shall not see Jah, Jah in the land of the living. With those who dwell where all has ceased to be, I shall behold man no more.

¹² Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent. I have cut off like a weaver my life. He separateth me from the thrum:—from day to night thou wilt make an end of me.

¹³ I kept still until the morning; … as a lion, so doth he break all my bones. From day to night thou wilt make an end of me.

¹⁴ Like a swallow [or] a crane, so did I chatter; I mourned as a dove; mine eyes failed [with looking] upward: Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me.

¹⁵ What shall I say? He hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done [it]. I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul.

¹⁶ Lord, by these things [men] live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit; and thou hast recovered me, and made me to live.

¹⁷ Behold, instead of peace I had bitterness upon bitterness; but thou hast in love delivered my soul from the pit of destruction; for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.

¹⁸ For not Sheol shall praise thee, nor death celebrate thee; they that go down into the pit do not hope for thy truth.

¹⁹ The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.

²⁰ Jehovah was [purposed] to save me.—And we will play upon my stringed instruments all the days of our life, in the house of Jehovah.

²¹ Now Isaiah had said, Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover.

²² And Hezekiah had said, What is the sign that I shall go up into the house of Jehovah?