Isaiah’s Message of Deliverance (Isaiah 37:1–7)
1 UDB When King Hezekiah heard what they reported, he tore his clothes and put on clothes made of rough cloth because he was very distressed. Then he went to the temple to ask God what to do. BSB BSB: On hearing this report, King Hezekiah tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and entered the house of the LORD.
3 UDB He told them to say these things to Isaiah: "King Hezekiah says that this is a day when we have great distress. Other nations are causing us to be insulted and disgraced like a woman who is about to give birth to a child, but she is not strong enough to do it. BSB BSB: to tell him, “This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace; for children have come to the point of birth, but there is no strength to deliver them.
4 UDB Perhaps Yahweh our God has heard everything that the official from Assyria said. Perhaps he knows that his master, the king of Assyria, sent him to insult the all-powerful God and that Yahweh will punish him for what he said. And Hezekiah requests that you pray for the few of us who are still alive here in Jerusalem." BSB BSB: Perhaps the LORD your God will hear all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to defy the living God, and He will rebuke him for the words that the LORD your God has heard. Therefore lift up a prayer for the remnant that still survives.”
5 UDB When the messengers from Hezekiah came to Isaiah, BSB BSB: So the servants of King Hezekiah went to Isaiah,
6 UDB Isaiah instructed them to go back to their master and tell him what Yahweh says: "Those messengers from the king of Assyria have said evil things about me. But you should not be disturbed because of what they said. BSB BSB: who replied, “Tell your master that this is what the LORD says: ‘Do not be afraid of the words you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me.
7 UDB Listen to this: I will cause Sennacherib to hear a rumor that will worry him, that other armies are about to attack his country. So he will return to his own country, and there I will cause him to be assassinated by some men." BSB BSB: Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land, where I will cause him to fall by the sword.’”
Sennacherib’s Blasphemous Letter (Isaiah 37:8–13)
8 UDB The official from Assyria found out that the King of Assyria and his army had left the city of Lachish and that they were attacking Libnah, which was a nearby city. So the official went there to report to him what had happened in Jerusalem. BSB BSB: When the Rabshakeh heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.
9 UDB Soon after that, King Sennacherib received a report that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia was leading his army to attack them. But before King Sennacherib left Libnah to fight against the army from Ethiopia, he sent other messengers to King Hezekiah with a letter. BSB BSB: Now Sennacherib had been warned about Tirhakah king of Cush: “Look, he has set out to fight against you.” So Sennacherib again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
10 UDB In the letter he wrote this to Hezekiah: "Do not allow your god on whom you are relying to deceive you by promising that my army will never capture Jerusalem. BSB BSB: “Give this message to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you by saying that Jerusalem will not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
11 UDB You have certainly heard what the armies of the kings of Assyria have done to all the other countries. Our armies have completely destroyed them. So do you think that you will escape? BSB BSB: Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other countries, devoting them to destruction. Will you then be spared?
12 UDB Did the gods of the nations that were about to be destroyed by the armies of the previous kings of Assyria rescue them? Did those gods rescue the people in the region of Gozan or in the cities of Haran and Rezeph in northern Aram? Did they rescue the people of Eden who had been deported to the city of Tel Assar? None of the gods of those cities was able to rescue them. BSB BSB: Did the gods of the nations destroyed by my fathers rescue those nations—the gods of Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph, and of the people of Eden in Telassar?
13 UDB What happened to the kings of the cities of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, and Ivvah? They are all dead." BSB BSB: Where are the kings of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”
Hezekiah’s Prayer (Isaiah 37:14–20)
14 UDB Hezekiah received the letter that the messengers gave him, and he read it. Then he went up to the temple and spread out the letter in front of Yahweh. BSB BSB: So Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers, read it, and went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD.
15 UDB Then Hezekiah prayed this: "Yahweh, the God to whom we Israelites belong, you are seated on your throne above the statues of creatures with wings, above the sacred chest. Only you are truly God. You rule all the kingdoms on this earth. You are the one who created everything on the earth and in the sky. BSB BSB: And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD: “O LORD, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth.
16 UDB So Yahweh, please listen to what I am saying, and look at what is happening. And listen to what King Sennacherib has said to insult you, the all-powerful God. BSB BSB: Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see. Listen to the words that Sennacherib has sent to defy the living God.
17 UDB Yahweh, it is true that the armies of the kings of Assyria have completely destroyed many nations and ruined their lands. BSB BSB: Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste these nations and their lands.
18 UDB And they have thrown the idols of those nations into fires and burned them. But that was not difficult to do, because they were not gods. They were only statues made of wood and stone, idols that were shaped by humans, and that is why they were destroyed easily. BSB BSB: They have cast their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods, but only wood and stone—the work of human hands.
19 UDB So now, Yahweh our God, please rescue us from the power of the king of Assyria so that the people in all the kingdoms of the world may know that you, Yahweh, are the only one who is truly God." BSB BSB: And now, O LORD our God, please save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God.”
Sennacherib’s Fall Prophesied (Isaiah 37:21–35)
20 UDB Then Isaiah sent this message to Hezekiah to tell him what Yahweh, the God to whom the Israelites belonged, said in response: "I have heard what you prayed to me about Sennacherib, the king of Assyria. BSB BSB: Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria.
21 UDB This is what I say to that king: The people of Jerusalem despise you and make fun of you. They wag their heads to mock you. BSB BSB: This is the word that the LORD has spoken against him: ‘The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises you and mocks you; the Daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head behind you.
22 UDB Who do you think that you were despising and ridiculing? Who do you think you were shouting at? Who do you think you were looking at very proudly? It was I, the holy God whom the Israelites worship. BSB BSB: Whom have you taunted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel!
23 UDB The messengers whom you sent made fun of me. You said, 'With my many chariots I have gone to the highest mountains, to the highest mountains in Lebanon. We have cut down its tallest cedar trees and its best cedar trees. We have been to the most distant peaks and to its densest forests. BSB BSB: Through your servants you have taunted the Lord, and you have said: “With my many chariots I have ascended to the heights of the mountains, to the remote peaks of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the finest of its cypresses. I have reached its farthest outposts, the densest of its forests.
24 UDB We have dug wells in other countries and drunk water from them. And by marching through the streams of Egypt, we dried them all up!' BSB BSB: I have dug wells and drunk foreign waters. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.”
25 UDB But I reply, 'Have you never heard that long ago I planned that those things would happen? I planned it long ago, and now I have been causing it to occur. I planned that your army would have the power to capture many cities that were surrounded by high walls and cause them to become piles of rubble. BSB BSB: Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it; in days of old I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, that you should crush fortified cities into piles of rubble.
26 UDB The people who lived in those cities have no power, and as a result they became dismayed and discouraged. They are as frail as plants and grass in the fields, as frail as grass that grows on the roofs of houses and is scorched before it can grow tall. BSB BSB: Therefore their inhabitants, devoid of power, are dismayed and ashamed. They are like plants in the field, tender green shoots, grass on the rooftops, scorched before it is grown.
27 UDB But I know everything about you. I know when you are in your house and when you go outside; I also know that you are raging against me. BSB BSB: But I know your sitting down, your going out and coming in, and your raging against Me.
28 UDB So, because you have raged against me and because I have heard you do this, it will be as though I will put a hook in your nose, and I will put an iron bit in your mouth so that I can take you where I want you to go. I will force you to return to your own country on the same road on which you came here, without conquering Jerusalem.' BSB BSB: Because your rage and arrogance against Me have reached My ears, I will put My hook in your nose and My bit in your mouth; I will send you back the way you came.’
29 UDB Now I say this to Hezekiah: 'This is what will happen to prove that I am telling the truth: This year and next year you and your people will be able to harvest only wild grain. But the following year, you Israelites will be able to plant grain and harvest it and to plant vineyards and eat the grapes. BSB BSB: And this will be a sign to you, O Hezekiah: This year you will eat what grows on its own, and in the second year what springs from the same. But in the third year you will sow and reap; you will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
30 UDB The people in Judah who remain alive will prosper and have many children; they will be like plants whose roots go deep down into the ground and which produce much fruit. BSB BSB: And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root below and bear fruit above.
31 UDB There will be many people in Jerusalem who will remain alive because I, Yahweh, commander of the armies, have planned it to happen. BSB BSB: For a remnant will go forth from Jerusalem, and survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will accomplish this.
33 UDB Their king will return to his own country on the same road on which he came here. He will not enter this city. That will happen because I, Yahweh, have said it! BSB BSB: He will go back the way he came, and he will not enter this city, declares the LORD.
34 UDB I will defend this city and prevent it from being destroyed. I will do this for the sake of my own reputation and because of what I promised to King David, who served me well.'" BSB BSB: I will defend this city and save it for My own sake and for the sake of My servant David.’”
Jerusalem Delivered from the Assyrians (2 Chronicles 32:20–23; Isaiah 37:36–38)
35 UDB That night, an angel from Yahweh went out to where the army of Assyria had put up their tents and killed 185,000 of their soldiers. When the rest of the soldiers woke up the next morning, they saw that there were corpses everywhere. BSB BSB: And that very night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!
36 UDB Then King Sennacherib left and went home to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. BSB BSB: So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.