Hezekiah sendeth to Isaiah to pray for deliverance. 6 Isaiah comforteth him. 8 Sennacherib sendeth a blasphemous letter to Hezekiah. 14 Hezekiah's prayer. 21 Isaiah foretelleth the

destruction of Sennacherib, and the safety of Zion. 36 An angel slayeth the Assyrians. 37 Sennacherib is slain at Nineveh by his own sons. [B. C. 710.]

The prayer of Hezekiah

of Judah, saying, Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.

heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.

2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, unto Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.

1

3 And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.

4 It may be the LORD thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is 2 left.

5 So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

6 And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say unto your master, Thus saith the LORD, Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

7 Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.

8 So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.

9 And he heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He is come forth to make war with thee. And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

10 Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king

CHAP. XXXVII.-a 2 Kings 19. 1, &c. 1 Or, provocation. 2 Heb. found.

delivered?

5

19 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.

20 Now therefore, O LORD, our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD, even thou only.

21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent unto Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria: 22 This is the word which the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin, the

cherib's destruction foretold.

6

hter of Zion, hath despised thee, and hed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jeem hath shaken her head at thee. Whom hast thou reproached and blased? and against whom hast thou exthy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on even against the Holy One of Israel. By thy servants hast thou reproached ORD, and hast said, By the multitude 7 chariots am I come up to the height › mountains, to the sides of Lebanon; will cut down the tall cedars thereof, he choice fir trees thereof: and I will into the height of his border, and orest of his Carmel.

I have digged, and drunk water; and he sole of my feet have I dried up all vers of the besieged places. 10 Hast thou not heard long ago, how I lone it; and of ancient times, that I ormed it? now have I brought it to hat thou shouldest be to lay waste ed cities into ruinous heaps. Therefore their inhabitants were "of power, they were dismayed and cond: they were as the grass of the and as the green herb, as the grass on usetops, and as corn blasted before it

The Assyrians overthrown. the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward:

14

32 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.

33 Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with 'shields, nor cast a bank against it.

34 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD.

35 For I will 'defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.

36 Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.

38 And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they esEsar-haddon his son reigned in his stead. caped into the land of 16 Armenia: and

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

Hezekiah, in answer to prayer, hath his life lengthened. 8 The sun goeth ten degrees backward for a sign to him. 9 His song of thanksgiving. [B. c. 713.]

IN a those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, 1Set thine house in order for thou shalt die, and not live.

2 Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD,

beseech thee, how I have walked before thee | in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept 2 sore.

4 Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying,

His song of thanksgiving.

shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul.

16 O LORD, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live.

7

6

6 And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city.

e

7 And this shall be a sign unto thee from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he hath spoken;

3

8 Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the 'sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.

9 The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness:

10 I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years.

11 I said, I shall not see the LORD, even the LORD, 'in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.

12 Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life: he will cut me off with pining sickness: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.

4

13 I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. 14 Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; 'undertake for me.

15 What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it: I

18 For the grave cannot praise thee. death cannot celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.

19 The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.

20 The LORD was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD.

21. For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover.

n

22 Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?

CHAPTER XXXIX.

a

AT that time Merodach-baladan, the son

of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah: for he had heard that he had been sick, and was recov ered.

2 b And Hezekiah was glad of them, and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah showed them not.

3 Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him,

What

C

6 Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the LORD.

7 And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.

8 Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word of the LORD which thou hast spoken. He said moreover, For there shall be peace and truth in my days.

Glad tidings proclaimed.

5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

6 The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:

7 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.

h

8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

11 He shall feed his flock like a shepherd he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.

m

12 Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?

n

10

13 Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being "his counsellor hath taught him?

14 With whom took he counsel, and who 12 instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of 13 understanding?

15 Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.

59. 16. k ch. 62. 11. Rev. 22. 12. 1 ch. 49. 10. Ez. 34. 23. & 37.24. John 10. 11. Heb. 13. 20. 1 Pet. 2. 25. & 5. 4. Rev. 7. 17. Or, O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, ch. 41. 27. & 52. 7. Ur, O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem. Or, against the strong. 8 Or, recompense for his work, ch. 49. 4. Or, that give suck. m Prov. 30. 4. 10 Heb. a n Job 21. 22. & 36. 22, 23. Rom. 11. 34. 1 Cor. 2. 16. 11 Heb man of his counsel. 12 Heb. made him understand. 13 Heb. understanding; '

tierce.

The folly of likening God

X

23 That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. 24 Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.

25 To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.

26 Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: "he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.

27 Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God?

o Dan. 4. 35. 41. 6, 7. & 44. 12, &c.

41. 7. Jer. 10. 4. that silleth, dc.

p Ps. 62. 9. q ver. 25. ch. 46. 5. Acts 17. 29. r ch.
Jer. 10. 3, &c. 14 Heb. is poor of oblation.
s ch.
t Ps. 19. 1. Acts 14. 17. Rom. 1. 19, 20. 15 Or, Him

u Job 9. 8. Ps. 104. 2. ch. 42. 5. & 44. 24. & 51. 13. Jer. 10. 12. x Job 12. 21. Ps. 107. 40. y ver. 18. Deut. 4. 15, &c. z Ps.

to any other being. 28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.

29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.

30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:

31 But they that wait upon the LORD "shall 16 renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk,

and not faint.