Isaiah 37:1-13

Contemporary English Version

Hezekiah Asks Isaiah for Advice

(2 Kings 19.1-13)

37 As soon as Hezekiah heard the news, he tore off his clothes in sorrow and put on sackcloth. Then he went into the temple of the Lord. ² He told Prime Minister Eliakim, Assistant Prime Minister Shebna, and the senior priests to dress in sackcloth and tell me:

³ Isaiah, these are difficult and disgraceful times. Our nation is like a woman too weak to give birth, when it's time for her baby to be born. ⁴ Please pray for those of us who are left alive. The king of Assyria sent his army commander to insult the living God. Perhaps the Lord heard what he said and will do something, if you will pray.

⁵ When these leaders came to me, ⁶ I told them that the Lord had this message for Hezekiah:

I am the Lord. Don't worry about the insulting things that have been said about me by these messengers from the king of Assyria. ⁷ I will upset him with rumors about what's happening in his own country. He will go back, and there I will make him die a violent death.

⁸ Meanwhile the commander of the Assyrian forces heard that his king had left the town of Lachish and was now attacking Libnah. So he went there.

⁹ About this same time, the king of Assyria learned that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia^[a] was on his way to attack him. Then the king of Assyria sent some messengers with this note for Hezekiah:

¹⁰ Don't trust your God or be fooled by his promise to defend Jerusalem against me. ¹¹ You have heard how we Assyrian kings have completely wiped out other nations. What makes you feel so safe? ¹² The Assyrian kings before me destroyed the towns of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and everyone from Eden who lived in Telassar. What good did their gods do them? ¹³ The kings of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah have all disappeared.