Isaiah 35; Isaiah 36

1 The wilderness and the dry land will be glad; the desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose.

2 It will blossom abundantly and will also rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God.

3 Strengthen the weak hands, steady the shaking knees!

4 Say to the faint-hearted: "Be strong; do not fear! Here is your God; vengeance is coming. God's retribution is coming; He will save you."

5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

6 Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy, for water will gush in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;

7 the parched ground will become a pool of water, and the thirsty land springs of water. In the haunt of jackals, in their lairs, there will be grass, reeds, and papyrus.

8 A road will be there and a way; it will be called the Holy Way. The unclean will not travel on it, but it will be for him who walks the path. Even the fool will not go astray.

9 There will be no lion there, and no vicious beast will go up on it; they will not be found there. But the redeemed will walk [on it],

10 and the ransomed of the Lord will return and come to Zion with singing, crowned with unending joy. Joy and gladness will overtake [them], and sorrow and sighing will flee.

1 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria advanced against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

2 Then the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh, along with a massive army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. The Assyrian stood near the conduit of the upper pool, by the road to the Fuller's Field.

3 Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph, the record keeper, came out to him.

4 The Rabshakeh said to them, "Tell Hezekiah: The great king, the king of Assyria, says this: 'What are you basing your confidence on?

5 I say that your plans and military preparedness are mere words. Now who are you trusting in that you have rebelled against me?

6 Look, you are trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which will enter and pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. This is how Pharaoh king of Egypt is to all who trust in him.

7 Suppose you say to me: We trust in the Lord our God. Isn't He the One whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem: You are to worship at this altar?

8 Now make a deal with my master, the king of Assyria. I'll give you 2,000 horses if you can put riders on them!

9 How then can you repel [the attack of even] the weakest of my master's officers, and trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

10 Have I attacked this land to destroy it without the Lord's [approval]? The Lord said to me, 'Attack this land and destroy it.' "

11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand [it]; don't speak to us in Hebrew within earshot of the people who are on the wall."

12 But the Rabshakeh replied, "Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men who sit on the wall, [who are destined] with you to eat their excrement and drink their urine?"

13 Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out loudly in Hebrew: Listen to the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!

14 The king says: "Don't let Hezekiah deceive you, for he cannot deliver you.

15 Don't let Hezekiah persuade you to trust the Lord, saying, 'The Lord will surely deliver us. This city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.' "

16 Don't listen to Hezekiah. For the king of Assyria says: "Make peace with me and surrender to me; then every one of you will eat from his own vine and his own fig tree and drink water from his own cistern

17 until I come and take you away to a land like your land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

18 [Beware] that Hezekiah does not mislead you by saying, 'The Lord will deliver us.' Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand 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 hand?

20 Who of all the gods of these lands [ever] delivered his land from my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem?"

21 But they were silent and did not answer him at all, for the king's command was, "Don't answer him."

22 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph, the record keeper, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and they reported to him the words of the Rabshakeh.