Good News Translation GNT
World English Bible WEB
1 As soon as King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes in grief, put on sackcloth, and went to the Temple of the Lord.
1
It happened, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of Yahweh.
2 He sent Eliakim, the official in charge of the palace, Shebna, the court secretary, and the senior priests to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. They also were wearing sackcloth.
2
He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.
3 This is the message which he told them to give Isaiah: "Today is a day of suffering; we are being punished and are in disgrace. We are like a woman who is ready to give birth, but is too weak to do it.
3
They said to him, Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.
4 The Assyrian emperor has sent his chief official to insult the living God. May the Lord your God hear these insults and punish those who spoke them. So pray to God for those of our people who survive."
4
It may be Yahweh your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.
5 When Isaiah received King Hezekiah's message,
5
So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
6 he sent back this answer: "The Lord tells you not to let the Assyrians frighten you with their claims that he cannot save you.
6
Isaiah said to them, Thus shall you tell your master, Thus says Yahweh, Don't be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
7 The Lord will cause the emperor to hear a rumor that will make him go back to his own country, and the Lord will have him killed there."
7
Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he shall hear news, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
8 The Assyrian official learned that the emperor had left Lachish and was fighting against the nearby city of Libnah; so he went there to consult him.
8
So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah; for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.
9 Word reached the Assyrians that the Egyptian army, led by King Tirhakah of Ethiopia, was coming to attack them. When the emperor heard this, he sent a letter to King Hezekiah of Judah
9
When he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he is come out to fight against you, he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying,
10 to tell him, "The god you are trusting in has told you that you will not fall into my hands, but don't let that deceive you.
10
Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Don't let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
11 You have heard what an Assyrian emperor does to any country he decides to destroy. Do you think that you can escape?
11
Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shall you be delivered?
12 My ancestors destroyed the cities of Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph, and killed the people of Betheden who lived in Telassar, and none of their gods could save them.
12
Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden that were in Telassar?
13 Where are the kings of the cities of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?"
13
Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?
14 King Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went to the Temple, placed the letter there in the presence of the Lord,
14
Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of Yahweh, and spread it before Yahweh.
15 and prayed, "O Lord, the God of Israel, seated on your throne above the winged creatures, you alone are God, ruling all the kingdoms of the world. You created the earth and the sky.
15
Hezekiah prayed before Yahweh, and said, Yahweh, the God of Israel, who sit [above] the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth.
16 Now, Lord, look at what is happening to us. Listen to all the things that Sennacherib is saying to insult you, the living God.
16
Incline your ear, Yahweh, and hear; open your eyes, Yahweh, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, with which he has sent him to defy the living God.
17 We all know, Lord, that the emperors of Assyria have destroyed many nations, made their lands desolate,
17
Of a truth, Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands,
18 and burned up their gods - which were no gods at all, only images of wood and stone made by human hands.
18
and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone; therefore they have destroyed them.
19 Now, Lord our God, rescue us from the Assyrians, so that all the nations of the world will know that only you, O Lord, are God."
19
Now therefore, Yahweh our God, save you us, I beg you, out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you Yahweh are God alone.
20 Then Isaiah sent a message telling King Hezekiah that in answer to the king's prayer
20
Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, Whereas you have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard [you].
21 the Lord had said, "The city of Jerusalem laughs at you, Sennacherib, and makes fun of you.
21
This is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him: The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and laughed you to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.
22 Whom do you think you have been insulting and ridiculing? You have been disrespectful to me, the holy God of Israel.
22
Whom have you defied and blasphemed? and against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? [even] against the Holy One of Israel.
23 You sent your messengers to boast to me that with all your chariots you had conquered the highest mountains of Lebanon. You boasted that there you cut down the tallest cedars and the finest cypress trees and that you reached the deepest parts of the forests.
23
By your messengers you have defied the Lord, and have said, With the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon; and I will cut down the tall cedars of it, and the choice fir trees of it; and I will enter into his farthest lodging-place, the forest of his fruitful field.
24 You boasted that you dug wells and drank water in foreign lands and that the feet of your soldiers tramped the Nile River dry.
24
I have dug and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet will I dry up all the rivers of Egypt.
25 "Have you never heard that I planned all this long ago? And now I have carried it out. I gave you the power to turn fortified cities into piles of rubble.
25
Haven't you heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it of ancient times? now have I brought it to pass, that it should be yours to lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps.
26 The people who lived there were powerless; they were frightened and stunned. They were like grass in a field or weeds growing on a roof when the hot east wind blasts them.
26
Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as grain blasted before it is grown up.
27 "But I know everything about you, what you do and where you go. I know how you rage against me.
27
But I know your sitting down, and your going out, and your coming in, and your raging against me.
28 I have received the report of that rage and that pride of yours, and now I will put a hook through your nose and a bit in your mouth, and take you back by the same road you came."
28
Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance is come up into my ears, therefore will I put my hook in your nose, and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came.
29 Then Isaiah said to King Hezekiah, "Here is a sign of what will happen. This year and next you will have only wild grain to eat, but the following year you will be able to plant your grain and harvest it, and plant vines and eat grapes.
29
This shall be the sign to you: You shall eat this year that which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs of the same; and in the third year sow you, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of it.
30 Those in Judah who survive will flourish like plants that send roots deep into the ground and produce fruit.
30
The remnant that has escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
31 There will be people in Jerusalem and on Mount Zion who will survive, because the Lord is determined to make this happen.
31
For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and out of Mount Zion those who shall escape: the zeal of Yahweh shall perform this.
32 "And this is what the Lord has said about the Assyrian emperor: "He will not enter this city or shoot a single arrow against it. No soldiers with shields will come near the city, and no siege mounds will be built around it.
32
Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither shall he come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it.
33 He will go back by the same road he came, without entering this city. I, the Lord, have spoken.
33
By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and he shall not come to this city, says Yahweh.
34 I will defend this city and protect it, for the sake of my own honor and because of the promise I made to my servant David.' "
34
For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake, and for my servant David's sake.
35 That night an angel of the Lord went to the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 soldiers. At dawn the next day there they lay, all dead!
35
It happened that night, that the angel of Yahweh went forth, and struck in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred eighty-five thousand: and when men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
36 Then the Assyrian emperor Sennacherib withdrew and returned to Nineveh.
36
So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and lived at Nineveh.
37 One day, when he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, two of his sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, killed him with their swords and then escaped to the land of Ararat. Another of his sons, Esarhaddon, succeeded him as emperor.
37
It happened, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar-haddon his son reigned in his place.