32For a remnant shall come forth from Jerusalem,
Survivors from Mount Zion.
The zeal of the LORD of Hosts
Shall bring this to pass.
33“Assuredly, thus said the LORD concerning the king of Assyria:
He shall not enter this city;
He shall not shoot an arrow at it,
Or advance upon it with a shield,
Or pile up a siegemound against it.
34He shall go back
By the way he came,
He shall not enter this city
—declares the LORD;
35I will protect and save this city for My sake
And for the sake of My servant David.”
36[That night]j an angel of the LORD went out and struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp, and the following morning they were all dead corpses.
37So King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and retreated, and stayed in Nineveh. 38While he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, he was struck down with the sword by his sons Adrammelech and Sarezer. They fled to the land of Ararat, and his son Esarhaddon succeeded him as king.
38 In those days Hezekiah fell dangerously ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came and said to him, “Thus said the LORD: Set your affairs in order, for you are going to die; you will not get well.” 2Thereupon Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD. 3“Please, O LORD,” he said, “remember how I have walked before You sincerely and wholeheartedly, and have done what is pleasing to You.” And Hezekiah wept profusely.
4Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah: 5“Go and tell Hezekiah: Thus said the LORD, the God of your father David: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. I hereby add fifteen years to your life. 6I will also rescue you and this city from the hands of the king of Assyria. I will protect this city. 7And this is the sign for you from the LORD that the LORD will do the thing that He has promised: 8I am going to make the shadow on the steps, which has descended on the diala of Ahaz because of the sun, recede ten steps.” And the sun[’s shadow] receded ten steps, the same steps as it had descended.
9A poem by King Hezekiah of Judah when he recovered from the illness he had suffered:
10bI had thought:
I must depart in the middle of my days;
I have been consigned to the gates of Sheol
For the rest of my years.
11I thought, I shall never see Yah,c
Yah in the land of the living,
Or ever behold men again
Among those who inhabit the earth.
12My dwelling is pulled up and removed from me
Like a tent of shepherds;
My life is rolled up like a web
And cut from the thrum.
d-Only from daybreak to nightfall
Was I kept whole,
13Then it was as though a lion
Were breaking all my bones;
I cried out until morning.
(Only from daybreak to nightfall
Was I kept whole.)-d
14I piped like a swift or a swallow,
I moaned like a dove,
As my eyes, all worn, looked to heaven:
“My Lord, I am in straits;
Be my surety!”
15What can I say? d-He promised me,-d
And He it is who has wrought it.
d-All my sleep had fled
Because of the bitterness of my soul.
16My Lord, for all that and despite it
My life-breath is revived;-d
You have restored me to health and revived me.
17Truly, it was for my own good
That I had such great bitterness:
You saved my life
From the pit of destruction,
For You have cast behind Your back
All my offenses.
18For it is not Sheol that praises You,
Not [the Land of] Death that extols You;
Nor do they who descend into the Pit
Hope for Your grace.
19The living, only the living
Can give thanks to You
As I do this day;
Fatherse relate to children
Your acts of grace:
20“[It has pleased] the LORD to deliver us,e
That is why we offer up musicf
All the days of our lives
At the House of the LORD.”
21When Isaiah said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the rash, and he will recover,” 22Hezekiah asked, “What will be the sign that I shall go up to the House of the LORD?”
39 At that time, Merodach-baladan son of Baladan, the king of Babylon, sent [envoys with] a letter and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard about his illness and recovery. 2Hezekiah was pleased by their coming, and he showed them his treasure house—the silver, the gold, the spices, and the fragrant oil—and all his armory, and everything that was to be found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his palace or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them. 3Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah. “What,” he demanded of him, “did those men say to you? Where have they come to you from?” “They have come to me,” replied Hezekiah, “from a far country, from Babylon.” 4Next he asked, “What have they seen in your palace?” And Hezekiah replied, “They have seen everything there is in my palace. There was nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.”
5Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD of Hosts: 6A time is coming when everything in your palace, which your ancestors have stored up to this day, will be carried off to Babylon; nothing will be left behind, said the LORD. 7And some of your sons, your own issue, whom you will have fathered, will be taken to serve as eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” 8Hezekiah declared to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “It means that a-safety is assured for-a my time.”
40 Comfort, oh comfort My people,
Says your God.
2Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
And declare to her
That her term of service is over,
That her iniquity is expiated;
For she has received at the hand of the LORD
Double for all her sins.
3A voice rings out:
“Clear in the desert
A road for the LORD!
Level in the wilderness
A highway for our God!
4Let every valley be raised,
Every hill and mount made low.
Let the rugged ground become level
And the ridges become a plain.
5The Presence of the LORD shall appear,
And all flesh, as one, shall behold—
For the LORD Himself has spoken.”
6A voice rings out: “Proclaim!”
a-Another asks,-a “What shall I proclaim?”
“All flesh is grass,
All its goodness like flowers of the field:
7Grass withers, flowers fade
When the breath of the LORD blows on them.
Indeed, man is but grass:
8Grass withers, flowers fade—
But the word of our God is always fulfilled!”
9Ascend a lofty mountain,
O herald of joy to Zion;
Raise your voice with power,
O herald of joy to Jerusalem—
Raise it, have no fear;
Announce to the cities of Judah:
Behold your God!
10Behold, the Lord GOD comes in might,
And His arm wins triumph for Him;
See, His rewardb is with Him,
His recompense before Him.
11Like a shepherd He pastures His flock:
He gathers the lambs in His arms
And carries them in His bosom;
Gently He drives the mother sheep.
12Who measured the waters with the hollow of His hand,
And gauged the skies with a span,
And meted earth’s dust with a measure,c
And weighed the mountains with a scale
And the hills with a balance?
13Who has plumbed the mind of the LORD,
What man could tell Him His plan?
14Whom did He consult, and who taught Him,
Guided Him in the way of right?
Who guided Him in knowledge
And showed Him the path of wisdom?
15The nations are but a drop in a bucket,
Reckoned as dust on a balance;
The very coastlands He lifts like motes.
16Lebanon is not fuel enough,
Nor its beasts enough for sacrifice.
17All nations are as naught in His sight;
He accounts them as less than nothing.
18To whom, then, can you liken God,
What form compare to Him?
19The idol? A woodworker shaped it,
And a smith overlaid it with gold,
d-Forging links of silver.-d
20As a gift, he chooses the mulberryc—
A wood that does not rot—
Then seeks a skillful woodworker
To make a firm idol,
That will not topple.
21Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Have you not been told
From the very first?
Have you not discerned
d-How the earth was founded?-d
22It is He who is enthroned above the vault of the earth,
So that its inhabitants seem as grasshoppers;
Who spread out the skies like gauze,
Stretched them out like a tent to dwell in.
23He brings potentates to naught,
Makes rulers of the earth as nothing.
24Hardly are they planted,
Hardly are they sown,
Hardly has their stem
Taken root in earth,
When He blows upon them and they dry up,
And the storm bears them off like straw.
25To whom, then, can you liken Me,
To whom can I be compared?
—says the Holy One.
26Lift high your eyes and see:
Who created these?
He who sends out their host by count,
Who calls them each by name:
Because of His great might and vast power,
Not one fails to appear.
27Why do you say, O Jacob,
Why declare, O Israel,
“My way is hid from the LORD,
My cause is ignored by my God”?
28Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is God from of old,
Creator of the earth from end to end.
He never grows faint or weary,
His wisdom cannot be fathomed.
29He gives strength to the weary,
Fresh vigor to the spent.
30Youths may grow faint and weary,
And young men stumble and fall;
31But they who trust in the LORD shall renew their strength
As eagles grow new plumes:f
They shall run and not grow weary,
They shall march and not grow faint.
41 Stand silent before Me, coastlands,
And let nations a-renew their strength.-a
Let them approach to state their case;
Let us come forward together for argument.
2Who has roused a victorb from the East,
Summoned him to His service?
Has delivered up nations to him,
And trodden sovereigns down?
Has rendered theirc swords like dust,
Theirc bows like wind-blown straw?
3He pursues them, he goes on unscathed;
No shackled is placed on his feet.
4Who has wrought and achieved this?
He who announced the generations from the start—
I, the LORD, who was first
And will be with the last as
