Isaiah 36-39
New Catholic Bible
Historical Appendix[a]
Chapter 36
Sennacherib’s Challenge.[b] 1 In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign, King Sennacherib of Assyria attacked all the fortified towns of Judah and captured them. 2 From Lachish the king of Assyria sent his chief officer to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem with a great army. When the chief officer took up his position near the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Fuller’s Field 3 there came out to meet him Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was master of the palace, as well as Shebna the secretary, and the recorder Joah, son of Asaph.
4 The chief officer said to them, “Tell King Hezekiah: This is the message of the great king, the king of Assyria. On what do you base this great confidence of yours? 5 Do you think that mere words can overcome strategy and military strength? On whom are you relying for help that you dare to rebel against me? 6 This Egypt, the staff on whom you rely, is a broken reed that will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely upon him. 7 And if you say to me that you are relying on the Lord, your God, is he not the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, commanding Judah and Jerusalem to worship at this altar?
8 “Now I challenge you to make a wager with my master, the king of Assyria. I will give you two thousand horses if you can find riders for them. 9 But how could you repulse even a single one of my master’s soldiers, even though you are depending upon Egypt for chariots and horsemen? 10 Moreover, do you believe that I have come to attack this land and destroy it without the consent of the Lord? The Lord himself said to me, ‘Go forth against this land and destroy it.’ ”
11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the chief officer, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic,[c] for we understand it. Do not speak to us in Judean within earshot of the people on the ramparts.” 12 The chief officer replied, “Has my master sent me here to speak these words only to your master and to you, and not also to the people sitting on the wall who along with you will be doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?”
13 Then the chief officer stood up and shouted loudly in the Judean language, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. 14 Thus says the king: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you. 15 Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to rely on the Lord by saying, ‘The Lord will surely deliver us. This city will not fall into the power of the king of Assyria.’ 16 Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria, ‘Make peace with me and surrender. Then each of you will be free to eat the fruit of his own vine and drink the water of his own cistern 17 until I come to take you to a land like your own, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18 Do not let Hezekiah mislead you by saying that the Lord will save you. Have any of the gods of the nations saved their lands from the power of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my clutches?[d] 20 Which of all the gods of these countries has saved his country from my hand? Will the Lord then save Jerusalem from my power?’ ”
21 However, the people remained silent and did not respond with even a single word, for the king had ordered them not to reply to him. 22 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was the master of the palace, and Shebna the secretary, and the recorder Joah son of Asaph, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and reported the words of the chief officer.
Chapter 37
1 When King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes, wrapped himself in sackcloth, and went into the temple of the Lord. 2 He sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, and Shebna the secretary, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz 3 and gave him this message:
“Thus says Hezekiah, ‘Today is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace. Children come to the moment of birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth. 4 It may be that the Lord, your God heard the words of the chief officer, whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to taunt the living God, and that he will be rebuked for the words which the Lord, your God has heard. Offer your prayer for the remnant that still survive.’ ”
5 When the ministers of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, 6 he said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Do not be alarmed because of the words that you have heard with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7 I will put a spirit in him so that when he hears a certain rumor he will go back to his own country, and there I will cause him to fall by the sword.’ ”
8 Meanwhile, the chief officer returned and discovered that the king of Assyria had departed from Lachish and was fighting against Libnah,[e] 9 since he had heard that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia was on his way to attack him. On learning this, he sent envoys to Hezekiah with this message:
10 “Thus shall you say to King Hezekiah of Judah: ‘Do not let your God upon whom you rely deceive you with the promise that Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria. 11 You yourself must have learned by now what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other countries, subjecting them to complete destruction. Will you then be delivered? 12 Did the gods of the nations whom my ancestors destroyed deliver them: Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were living in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena, or Ivvah?’ ”
14 Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. 15 Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and, spreading it out before him, he prayed to the Lord: 16 “O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned upon the cherubim, you alone are God of all the kingdoms of the world. You have created the heavens and the earth. 17 Incline your ear, O Lord, and listen; open your eyes, O Lord, and see. Hear all the words of Sennacherib whose purpose is to taunt the living God. 18 Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands. 19 They have cast their gods into the fire because they were not truly gods but the work of human hands, fashioned from wood and stone—and so they were destroyed. 20 Therefore, O Lord, our God, save us from his hands so that all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you alone, O Lord, are God.”
21 Sennacherib’s Punishment. Then Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent the following message to Hezekiah: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: In answer to your prayer to me requesting help against King Sennacherib of Assyria, 22 this is the pronouncement that the Lord has made in regard to him:
“The virgin daughter of Zion
despises you and scorns you.
While you retreat the daughter of Jerusalem
tosses her head at you.
23 Whom have you insulted and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice,
and haughtily lifted up your eyes?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
24 Through your servants you have insulted the Lord
and boasted: ‘With my many chariots
I have ascended the mountain heights,
the farthest peaks of Lebanon.
I have felled its tallest cedars,
its finest cypresses.
I have reached its highest peak
and its most luxuriant forest.
25 I have dug wells in foreign lands
and drunk the water there,
and with the soles of my feet
I have dried up all the rivers of Egypt.’
26 “Have you not heard
that I devised this plan long ago?
I planned it from days of old,
and now I have brought this to fruition:
you have reduced your fortified cities
into heaps of rubble,
27 while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,
are dismayed and frustrated;
they have become like plants of the field,
like tender green herbs,
like grass on housetops and fields
scorched by the east wind.
28 “I know when you stand or sit,
I know when you come in or go out,
and I am aware how you rage against me.
29 Because you have raged against me
and your arrogance has reached my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth
and force you to return
by the way you came.
30 This will be the sign for you:
This year you will eat what grows by itself,
and in the second year what springs forth from that.
However, in the third year sow and reap,
plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
31 The surviving remnant of the house of Judah
will again take root below
and bear fruit above.
32 For out of Jerusalem will come forth a remnant,
and from Mount Zion a band of survivors.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
33 “Therefore, this is the word of the Lord
in regard to the king of Assyria:
He will not come into this city
or shoot an arrow at it;
he will not advance against it with a shield
or build a siege-ramp against it.
34 By the way that he came,
by that same way he will return;
he will not enter this city, says the Lord.
35 I will protect this city and save it
for my own sake
and for the sake of my servant David.”
36 Then the angel of the Lord went forth and struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When morning dawned, the ground was covered with corpses.[f] 37 Then King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and returned home to Nineveh.
38 One day, as he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer slew him with the sword and then fled to the land of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon succeeded him.
Chapter 38
Hezekiah’s Sickness and Recovery. 1 During that period, Hezekiah fell ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, came to him and said, “Thus says the Lord: Put your affairs in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.”
2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, 3 “I beg you, O Lord, to remember how I have conducted myself faithfully in your presence and have always done what was pleasing to you.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4 Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, 5 “Go and say to Hezekiah: Thus says the Lord, the God of your ancestor David. I have heard your prayer and I have seen your tears. Therefore, I have decided to heal you. In three days you will go up to the temple of the Lord, and I will add fifteen years to your life. 6 I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria and defend this city.”
[21 Isaiah thereupon ordered a poultice of figs to be prepared and applied to the boil so that Hezekiah might recover. 22 Then Hezekiah asked, “What is the sign to confirm that I will go up to the temple of the Lord?”]
7 Isaiah replied, “This will be the sign to you from the Lord that he will do as he has promised. 8 I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the stairway of Ahaz to turn back ten steps.” And the sun then retreated the ten steps it had previously advanced.
Hezekiah’s Hymn of Thanksgiving.[g] 9 A canticle written by King Hezekiah of Judah after his recovery from his illness:
10 Once I said,
“In the noontime of my life
I must depart.
I will be consigned to the gates of Sheol
for the rest of my years.”
11 I said, “I will no longer see the Lord
in the land of the living.
I will no longer see any of my fellow men
as I did when I dwelled in the world.
12 “My dwelling has been torn down and thrown away
like a shepherd’s tent;
like a weaver I have rolled up my life
and the last thread has been severed.
Day and night I am subject to torment;
13 I cry out for help until the dawn.
All my bones are crushed, as if by a lion;
day and night I suffer in torment.
14 “Like a swallow I twitter;
I moan like a dove.
My eyes have grown dim looking up to heaven;
O Lord, come to my aid in my suffering.
15 Yet how can I complain? What should I say?
He himself has done this.
I will wander aimlessly for the rest of my years
because of the bitterness of my soul.
16 “However, you, O Lord, are always present to protect me,
and you grant life to my spirit;
you will restore me to health
and enable me to live.
17 Clearly it was for my benefit
that I suffered such anguish,
but you have preserved my life
from the pit of destruction,
for you have cast all my sins
behind your back.
18 For Sheol cannot give you thanks,
nor can death praise you.
Those who go down into the pit
cannot hope for your kindness.
19 It is the living, only the living, who can thank you
as I am doing today,
just as fathers make known to their sons
your faithfulness, O God.
20 “The Lord is my savior,
and we will sing to stringed instruments
all the days of our lives
in the house of the Lord.”
Chapter 39
Hezekiah’s Foolishness.[h] 1 At that time the king of Babylon, Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, sent envoys with letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been ill but had recovered. 2 Hezekiah was delighted at this, and therefore he showed the envoys his entire treasury: the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his entire armory, and all that was in his storerooms. There was nothing in his palace or in his entire realm that Hezekiah did not show them.
3 Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and said to him, “What did these men say to you? Where did they come from?” Hezekiah replied, “They came to me from a distant country, from Babylon.” 4 Isaiah then asked him, “What did they see in your palace?” Hezekiah said, “They have seen everything in my palace. There is nothing in my storerooms that I did not show them.”
5 Thereupon Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord of hosts. 6 Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when everything in your palace, and everything that your ancestors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left. 7 Some of your own sons who were fathered by you will be taken away and forced to serve as eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” 8 Hezekiah replied to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is comforting.” For he thought to himself, “There will be peace and security during my lifetime.”
Footnotes
- Isaiah 36:1 Some disciples of Isaiah took and adapted a part of the Second Book of Kings (18:13—20:19), in order to show that in two or three dramatic instances Isaiah had spoken truly. During the same period, there were other less favorable developments: the independence of Judah became increasingly precarious; pagan divinities continued to make their way even into the temple in Jerusalem. But the editors passed over these facts of general history.
- Isaiah 36:1 This event, to which Isaiah often refers, occurred in 701 B.C. Sennacherib spread his armies across Palestine, invaded Judah, and besieged Jerusalem.
- Isaiah 36:11 Aramaic: a Semitic language that spread throughout the entire Near East; after the Exile it became, even in Palestine, the language of the people, replacing Hebrew.
- Isaiah 36:19 People from Arpad and Sepharvaim were introduced into Samaria, which had been occupied by Sargon; the two places were, like Hamath, cities of Syria (see 10:9).
- Isaiah 37:8 Libnah: north of Lachish. Sennacherib moved a little further south in order to attack Pharaoh Tirhakah, who belonged to a dynasty of Ethiopian origin.
- Isaiah 37:36 In the effort to emphasize the breadth of God’s triumph, the writer is not afraid to exaggerate numbers.
- Isaiah 38:9 This prayer, which is lacking in 2 Kings, seems to be post-Exilic.
- Isaiah 39:1 The deportation of Jews to Babylonia over a century later, in 587 B.C., will be the tragic result of this policy; at least this is the view of the editor, who takes advantage of the episode to place a prophecy of exile on the lips of Isaiah himself.
