36 IN THE FOURTEENTH YEAR of the reign of Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked and took all the fortified cities of Judah. From Lachish he sent the chief officer with a strong force of King Hezekiah at Jeru- salem; and he halted by the conduit of the Upper Pool on the causeway which leads to the Fuller's Field. There Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the comp- troller of the household, came out to him, with Shebna the adjutant-general and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary of state. The chief officer said to them, 'Tell Hezekiah that this is the message of the Great King, the king of Assyria: "What ground have you for this confidence of yours? Do you think fine words can take the place of skill and numbers? On whom then do you rely for support in your rebellion against me? On Egypt? Egypt is a splintered cane that will run into a man's hand and pierce it if he leans on it. That is what Pharaoh king of Egypt proves to all who rely on him. And f you tell me that you are relying on the LORD your God, is he not the god whose hill-shrines and altars Hezekiah has suppressed, telling Judah and Jerusalem that thy must prostrate themselves before this altar alone?" 'Now, make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses if you can find riders for them. Will you reject the authority of even the least of my master's servants and rely on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? Do you think that I have come to attack this land and destroy it without the consent of the LORD? No; the LORD himself said to me, "Attack this land and destroy it." ' Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the chief officer, 'Please speak to us in Aramaic, for we understand it; do not speak Hebrew to us within earshot of the people on the city wall.' The chief officer answered, 'Is it to your master and to you that my master has sent me to say this? Is it not to the people sitting on the wall who, like you, will have to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?' Then he stood and shouted in Hebrew, 'Hear the message of the Great King, the king of Assyria. These are the king's words: "Do not be taken in by Hezekiah. He cannot save you. Do not let him persuade you to rely on the LORD, and tell you that the LORD will save you and that this city will never be surrendered to the king of Assyria." Do not listen to Hezekiah; these are the words of the king of Assyria: "Make peace with me. Come out to me, and then you shall each eat the fruit of his own vine and his own fig-tree, and drink the water of his own cistern, until I come and take you to a land like your own, a land of grain and new wine, of corn and vineyards. Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you by telling you that the LORD will save you. Did the god of any of these nations save his land from the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Where are the gods of Samaria? Did they save Samaria from me? Among all the gods of these nations is there one who saved his land from me? And how is the LORD to save Jerusalem?" ' The people were silent and answered not a word, for the king had given orders that no one was to answer him. Eliakim son of Hilkiah, comptroller of the household, Shebna the adjutant-general, and Joah son of Asaph, secretary of state, came to Hezekiah with their clothes rent and reported what the chief officer had said. 37 When King Hezekiah heard their report, he rent his clothes and wrapped himself in sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD. He sent Eliakim comptroller of the household, Shebna the adjutant-general, and the senior priests, all covered in sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz, to give him this message from the king: 'This day is a day of trouble for us, a day of reproof and contempt. We are like a woman who has no strength to bear the child that is coming to the birth. 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 will confute what he, the LORD your God, heard. Offer a prayer for those who still survive.' King Hezekiah's servants came to Isaiah, and he told them to say this to their master: 'This is the word of the LORD: "Do not be alarmed at what you heard when the lackeys of the king of Assyria blasphemed me. I will put a spirit in him, and he shall heard a rumour and withdraw to his own country; and there I will make him fall by the sword." ' So the chief officer withdrew. He heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, and he found him attacking Libnah. But when the king learnt that Tirhakah king of Cush was on the way to make war on him, he sent messengers again to Hezekiah king of Judah, to say to him, 'How can you be deluded by your god on whom you rely when he promises that Jerusalem shall not fall into the hands of the king of Assyria? Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all countries, exter- minating their people; can you hope to escape? Did their Gods save the nation which my forefathers destroyed, Gozan, Harran, Rezeph, and the people of Beth-eden living in Telassar? Where are the kings of Hamath, of Arpad, and of Lahir, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?' Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers and read it; then he went up into the house of the LORD, spread it out before the LORD and offered this prayer: 'O LORD of Hosts, God of Israel, enthroned on the cherubim, thou alone art God of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth. Turn thy ear to me, O LORD, and listen; open thine eyes, O LORD, and see; hear the message that Sennacherib has sent to taunt the living God. It is true, O LORD, that the kings of Assyria have laid waste every country, that they have consigned their gods to the fire and destroyed them; for they were no gods but the work of men's hands, mere wood and stone. But now, O LORD our God, save us from his power, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou, O LORD, alone art God.' Isaiah son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah and said, 'This is the word of the LORD the God of Israel: I have heard your prayer to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria. This is the word which the LORD has spoken concerning him: The virgin daughter of Zion disdains you, she laughs you to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem tosses her head as you retreat. Whom have you taunted and blasphemed? Against whom have you clamoured, casting haughty glances at the Holy One of Israel? You have sent your servants to taunt the Lord, and said: With my countless chariots I have gone up high in the mountains, into the recesses of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the best of its pines, I have reached its highest limit of forest and meadow. I have dug wells and drunk the water of a foreign land, and with the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt. Have you not heard long ago? I did it all. In days gone by I planned it and now I have brought it about, making fortified cities tumble down into heaps of rubble. Their citizens, shorn of strength, disheartened and ashamed, were but as plants in the field, as green herbs, as grass on the roof-tops blasted before the east wind. I know your rising and your sitting down, your going out and your coming in. The frenzy of your rage against me and your arrogance have come to my ears. I will put a ring in your nose and a hook in your lips, and I will take you back by the road on which you have come. This shall be the sign for you: this year you shall eat shed grain and in the second year what is self-sown; but in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. The survivors left in Judah shall strike fresh root under ground and yield fruit above ground, for a remnant shall come out of Jerusalem and survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will perform this. 'Therefore, this is the word of the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not enter this city nor shoot an arrow there, he shall not advance against it wit shield nor cast up a siege-ramp against it. By the way on which he came he shall go back; this city he shall not enter. This is the very word of the LORD. I will shield this city to deliver it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.' The angel of the LORD went out and struck down a hundred and eighty- five thousand men in the Assyrian camp; when morning dawned, they all lay dead. So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp, went back to Nineveh and stayed there. One day, while he was worshipping in the temple of his god Nisroch, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons murdered him and escaped to the land of Ararat. He was succeeded by his son Esarhaddon. 38 At this time Hezekiah fell dangerously ill and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, 'This is the word of the LORD: Give your last instructions to your household, for you are a dying man and will not recover.' Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and offered this prayer to the LORD: 'O LORD, remember how I have lived before thee, faithful and loyal in thy service, always doing what was good in thine eyes.' And he wept bitterly. Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah: 'Go and say to Hezekiah: "This is the word of the LORD the God of your father David: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city from the king of Assyria and will protect this city." ' Then Isaiah told them to apply a fig-plaster; so they made one and applied it to the boil, an he recovered. Then Hezekiah said, By what sign shall I know that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?' And Isaiah said, 'This shall be your sign from the LORD that he will do what he has promised. Watch the shadow cast by the sun on the stairway of Ahaz: I will bring backwards ten steps the shadow which has gone down on the stairway.' And the sun went back ten steps on the stairway down which it had gone. A poem of Hezekiah king of Judah after his recovery from his illness, as it is written down: I thought: In the prime of life I must pass away; for the rest of my years I am consigned to the gates of Sheol. I said: I shall no longer see the LORD in the land of the living; never again, like those who live in the world, shall I look on a man. My dwelling is taken from me, pulled up like a shepherd's tent; thou hast cut short my life like a weaver who severs the web from the thrum. From morning to night thou tormentest me, then I am racked with pain till the morning. All my bones are broken, as a lion would break them; from morning to night thou tormentest me. I twitter as if I were a swallow, I moan like a dove. My eyes falter as I look up to the heights; O Lord, pay heed, stand surety for me. How can I complain, what can I say to the LORD when he himself has done this? I wander to and from all my life long in the bitterness of my soul. Yet, O Lord, my soul shall live with thee; do thou give my spirit rest. Restore me and give me life. Bitterness had indeed been my lot in place of prosperity; but thou by thy love hast brought me back from the pit of destruction; for thou hast cast all my sins behind thee. Sheol cannot confess thee, Death cannot praise thee, nor can they who go down to the abyss hope for thy truth. The living, the living alone can confess thee as I do this day, as a father makes thy truth known, O God, to his sons. The LORD is at hand to save me; so let us sound the music of our praises all our life long in the house of the LORD. 39 At this time Merodach-baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent envoys with a gift to Hezekiah; for he had heard that he had been ill and was well again. Hezekiah welcomed them and showed them all his treasury, silver and gold, spices and fragrant oil, his entire armoury and everything to be found among his treasures; there was nothing in his house and in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them. Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and asked him, 'What did these men say and where have they come from?' 'They have come from a far-off country,' Hezekiah answered, 'from Babylon.' Then Isaiah asked, 'What did they see in your house?' 'They saw everything,' Hezekiah replied; 'there was nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.' Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, 'Hear the word of the LORD of Hosts: The time is coming, says the LORD, when everything in your house, and all that your forefathers have amassed till the present day, will be carried away to Babylon; not a thing shall be left. And some of the sons who will be born to you, sons of your own begetting, shall be taken and shall be made eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.' Hezekiah answered, 'The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good', thinking to himself that peace and security would last out his lifetime. 40 Comfort, O my people, comfort. — it is the voice of your God; speak tenderly to Jerusalem and tell her this, that she has fulfilled her term of bondage, that her penalty is paid; she has received at the LORD's hand full measure for all her sins. There is a voice that cries: Prepare a road for the LORD through the wilderness, clear a highway across the desert for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, every mountain and hill brought down; rugged places shall be made smooth and mountain-ranges become a plain. Thus shall the glory of the LORD be revealed, and all mankind together shall see it; for the LORD himself has spoken. A voice says, 'Cry', and another asks, 'What shall I cry?' 'That all mankind is grass, they last no longer than a flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows upon them; the grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God endures for evermore.' You who bring Zion good news, up with you to the mountain-top; lift up your voice and shout, you who bring good news to Jerusalem, lift it up fearlessly; cry to the cities of Judah, 'Your God is here.' Here is the Lord GOD coming in might, coming to rule with his right arm. His recompense comes with him, he carries his reward before him. He will tend his flock like a shepherd and gather them together with his arm; he will carry the lambs in his bosom and lead the ewes to water. Who has gauged the waters in the palm of his hand, or with its span set limits to the heavens? Who has held all the soil of the earth in a bushel, or weighed the mountains on a balance and the hills on a pair of scales? Who has set limits to the spirit of he LORD? What counsellor stood at his side to instruct him? With whom did he confer to gain discernment? Who taught him how to do justice or gave him lessons in wisdom? Why, to him nations are but drops from a bucket, no more than moisture on the scales; coasts and islands weigh as light as specks of dust. All Lebanon does not yield wood enough for fuel or beasts enough for sacrifice. All nations dwindle to nothing before him, he reckons them mere nothing, less than nought. What likeness will you find for God or what form to resemble his? Is it an image which a craftsmen sets up, and a goldsmith covers with plate and fits with studs of silver as a costly gift? Or is it the mulberry-wood that will not rot which a man chooses, seeking out a skillful craftsman for it, to mount an image that will not fall? Each workman helps the others, each man encourages his fellow. The craftsman urges on the goldsmith, the gilder urges the man who beats the anvil, he declares the soldering to be sound; he fastens the image with nails so that it will not fall down. Do you know, have you not heard, were you not told long ago, have you not perceived ever since the world began, that God sits throned on the vaulted roof of earth, whose inhabitants are like grasshoppers? He stretches out the skies like a curtain, he spreads them out like a tent to live in; he reduces the great to nothing. Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely have they taken rot in the earth, before he blows upon them and they wither away, and the whirlwind carries them off like chaff. To whom then will you liken me, whom set up as me equal? asks the Holy One. Lift up your eyes to the heavens; consider who created it all, led out their host one by one and called them all by their names; through his great might, his mighty power, not one is missing. Why do you complain, O Jacob, and you, Israel, why do you say, 'My plight is hidden from the LORD and my cause has passed out of God's notice'? Do you know, have you not heard? The LORD, the everlasting God, creator of the wide world, grows neither weary nor faint; no man can fathom his understanding. He gives vigour to the weary, new strength to the exhausted. Young men may grow weary and fain, even in their prime they may stumble and fall; but those who look to the LORD will win new strength, they will grow wings like eagles; they will not run and not be weary, they will march on and never grow faint.
The New English Bible (with Apocrypha)
Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, 1970
Submitted December 13, 2018 at 07:07PM by MarleyEngvall https://ift.tt/2Geb1fn
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