Isaiah’s Message of Deliverance (Isaiah 37:1–7)
1 UST When King Hezekiah heard what the Rabshakeh had said,{ to show how distressed he was,} he tore his regular clothes and wore rough cloth instead. Then he went into{ the courtyard of} Yahweh’ s temple{ to pray}. BSB BSB: On hearing this report, King Hezekiah tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and entered the house of the LORD.
3 UST The men told Isaiah,“King Hezekiah says that we are now in great trouble. Yahweh seems to be punishing us for our sins. Foreigners are insulting us{ because we do not seem to have a God who can help us}. Our lives are in danger, like the lives of the mother and child when it is time for a woman to give birth but she does not have the strength to push her baby out. 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 UST The Rabshakeh insulted the only true God. That was what his master, the king of Assyria, sent him to do. Perhaps Yahweh your God heard everything that he said. Perhaps he will punish him for saying those things. King Hezekiah asks you to pray for those 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 UST After the messengers from Hezekiah told Isaiah these things, BSB BSB: So the servants of King Hezekiah went to Isaiah,
6 UST Isaiah told them to go back to the king and tell him that Yahweh said to him,“Those soldiers of the king of Assyria insulted me{ by saying that I was no better than the false gods that other nations worship}. But you should not let what they said make you afraid. 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 UST I am going to send a spirit to Sennacherib{ that will make him anxious}. Then he will hear a rumor that will worry him so much that he will return to his own country. There some men will assassinate him.” 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 UST To report what had happened in Jerusalem, the Rabshakeh went to Libnah. He went there because he learned that the Assyrian army had left Lachish. The king of Assyria was then leading an attack against Libnah. BSB BSB: When the Rabshakeh heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.
9 UST Soon after that, King Sennacherib received a report that King Tirhakah of Cush was leading his army to attack them.{ So he did not attack Jerusalem right away, but instead} he sent more messengers to King Hezekiah. 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 UST The king told his messengers to tell Hezekiah,“Yahweh your God is promising you that my army will never capture Jerusalem. You trust Yahweh, but he is not telling the truth, so do not believe him. 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 UST You have certainly heard what the armies of the kings of Assyria have done to all the other lands they invaded. They have completely destroyed them. So do not 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 UST The gods of other nations did not rescue them. Instead, the armies of previous kings of Assyria destroyed them. That is what happened to the people of Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph and the Edenites who lived in Tel Assar. 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 UST The Assyrians defeated and killed the kings of Hamath and Arpad and the cities of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah.” BSB BSB: Where are the kings of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”
Hezekiah’s Prayer (Isaiah 37:14–20)
14 UST The messengers gave Hezekiah a letter from the Assyrian king that said the same thing they had told him. Hezekiah read the letter. Then he went to the temple. The Assyrian king had written the letter on a scroll, and Hezekiah unrolled the scroll so that the writing would be visible as he prayed to 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 UST Then Hezekiah prayed,“Yahweh, you are the God to whom we Israelites belong. You are present in a special way above the statues of the winged creatures that are above the sacred chest in your temple. You are the only true God. You rule all the kingdoms on this earth. You are the one who created everything on the earth and in the heavens. 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 UST So, Yahweh, please pay attention to me as I speak, and look at what the king of Assyria has written. Listen{ as I read it aloud} to what King Sennacherib has said to insult you, the only true 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 UST Yahweh, it is true that the armies of the kings of Assyria have completely destroyed many people groups and the lands in which they were living. BSB BSB: Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste these nations and their lands.
18 UST It is also true that they have burned up the idols of those nations. But those were not really gods. They were only wooden or stone statues. Humans made them, and that is why the Assyrians were able to destroy them so 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 UST So now, Yahweh our God, please prevent the king of Assyria from conquering us. That way the people in all the kingdoms of the world will know that you, Yahweh, are the only true 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 UST Then Isaiah sent a message to Hezekiah. He told him,“Yahweh, the God to whom we Israelites belong, says that he will do what you asked him to do when you prayed to him 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 UST Yahweh says that the people of Jerusalem will belittle him and make fun of him. They will shake their heads to ridicule him as he runs away from the city with his army. 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 UST Yahweh says that the Assyrian king should not have insulted and made fun of him, the holy God whom the Israelites worship. He should not have shouted at him or proudly looked up at the sky. 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 UST Yahweh says that the Assyrian king sent messengers to make fun of him. Through those messengers,{ boasting about his military conquests,} he said that it was as if he had led his many chariots to the highest and most distant mountains in Lebanon. He said it was as if he and his soldiers had cut down the tallest cedar trees and best cypress trees in Lebanon.{ Boasting that he would now conquer Jerusalem,} he said that it was as if he and his army would now go to the place where people most want to go in Lebanon. That is a place where workers have made a beautiful park in the midst of the forest. 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 UST Yahweh says that the Assyrian king is boasting that{ in order to march through desolate regions,} he and his soldiers have dug wells in other countries to get water. He is also boasting that he will conquer Matsor{, which people also call Egypt,} as easily as a person can stamp out a small puddle of water. 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 UST But Yahweh says that the Assyrian king should realize that he planned long ago for those things to happen. Now he is causing them to occur. That is why the king’ s army has been capturing and destroying many cities that were surrounded by high walls. 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 UST The people who lived in those cities were not able to resist the Assyrians. This discouraged them and shamed them. The Assyrians destroyed them as easily as someone can cut down green plants that are growing in a field. The Assyrians destroyed them just as the heat of the sun destroys grass on the roof of a house before it can grow. 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 UST But, Yahweh says, he knows where the king of Assyria lives. He knows when he leaves home and when he returns. He knows when the king yells at him angrily. BSB BSB: But I know your sitting down, your going out and coming in, and your raging against Me.
28 UST Yahweh says that he has heard the king yelling at him angrily. As a result, he is going to force him to return to his own country{ without conquering Jerusalem} by the same route that he took to get here. It will be as if Yahweh puts a hook in his nose and a bit in his mouth in order to make him go where he wants him to go. 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 UST Here is a sign for you, Hezekiah{, to show that this message is truly from Yahweh}. This year, you and your people will eat wild grain. Next year, you will eat the grain that grows from the seeds of those wild plants. But the following year, you Israelites will be able to plant grain and harvest it. You will be able 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 UST The people in Judah who remain alive will once again prosper and have many sons and daughters, like plants whose roots go deep down into the ground and that produce much fruit. BSB BSB: And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root below and bear fruit above.
31 UST People will survive the Assyrian invasion. Afterwards, many of them will move from Jerusalem on Mount Zion to resettle other parts of Judah. Yahweh will eagerly make this 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 UST Yahweh says that the king of Assyria will not lead his army to this city. Instead, they will return to their own country by the same route that they took to get here. BSB BSB: He will go back the way he came, and he will not enter this city, declares the LORD.
34 UST Yahweh says that he will defend this city and prevent the Assyrians from destroying it. He will do that to show that he is the one true God and because of what he promised to his servant David{, that his descendants would always rule in Jerusalem}.” 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 UST That night, an angel representing Yahweh went to the place where the Assyrian soldiers had set up their tents. He killed 185, 000 of the soldiers. When the rest of the soldiers woke up the next morning, they saw the dead bodies of all those soldiers. 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 UST Then King Sennacherib had his soldiers take down their tents, and he led them away from Israel. They returned to Assyria, and Sennacherib remained in the city of Nineveh. 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.