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New Testament
Isaiah 37:1-13
Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah's Advice
371When King Hezekiah heard the report, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and went into the House of the Lord. 2He sent Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, who were wearing sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.
3They told him what Hezekiah said: “This is a day of distress, rebuke, and humiliation, because children are about to be born, but there is no strength left to give birth. 4Perhaps the Lord your God will take note of the words of this herald, who was sent by his lord, the king of Assyria, in defiance of the living God, and perhaps the Lord your God will rebuke him for what he has heard. So please, pray for the small group that is left here.”
5When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, 6he said to them, “Tell your master that this is what the Lord says. Do not be afraid of what you have heard. The lackeys[] of the king of Assyria have blasphemed against me. 7Watch! I will put a spirit in him, so that when he hears certain news, he will return to his own land. There I will cause him to be killed.”
8Then the herald went back. He heard that the king of Assyria had already left Lachish and was fighting against Libnah.
9When Sennacherib heard that Tirhakah king of Cush[] had set out to fight against him, he sent messengers to Hezekiah 10to say this to Hezekiah king of Judah:
Do not let the God you trust deceive you, saying that Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria. 11Listen, you yourself have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other lands, destroying them completely. And you expect to be saved? 12Did the gods of the nations whom my fathers destroyed save them—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden, who were in Tel Assar? 13Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the kings of the cities of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?
Footnotes
- 37:6 Or junior officers, an insulting term to use for such high-ranking officers
- 37:9 Cush is the ancient name for the territory south of the First Cataract of the Nile River. Called Ethiopia in Roman times, it included most of present-day Sudan and some of present-day Ethiopia. The Cushite or Nubian kings were the pharaohs of Egypt at this time.