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Isaiah 36:13-37:4
New English Translation

13 The chief adviser then stood there and called out loudly in the Judahite dialect,[a] “Listen to the message of the great king, the king of Assyria. 14 This is what the king says: ‘Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you, for he is not able to rescue you! 15 Don’t let Hezekiah talk you into trusting in the Lord by saying, “The Lord will certainly rescue us; this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.” 16 Don’t listen to Hezekiah!’ For this is what the king of Assyria says, ‘Send me a token of your submission and surrender to me.[b] Then each of you may eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern, 17 until I come and take you to a land just like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18 Hezekiah is misleading you when he says, “The Lord will rescue us.” Have any of the gods of the nations rescued their lands from the power of the king of Assyria?[c] 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim?[d] Indeed, did any gods rescue Samaria from my power?[e] 20 Who among all the gods of these lands have rescued their lands from my power? So how can the Lord rescue Jerusalem from my power?’”[f] 21 They were silent and did not respond, for the king had ordered, “Don’t respond to him.”

22 Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn[g] and reported to him what the chief adviser had said.

37 When King Hezekiah heard this,[h] he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and went to the Lord’s temple. 2 Eliakim the palace supervisor, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests,[i] clothed in sackcloth, sent this message to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz: 3 “This is what Hezekiah says:[j] ‘This is a day of distress, insults,[k] and humiliation,[l] as when a baby is ready to leave the birth canal, but the mother lacks the strength to push it through.[m] 4 Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all these things the chief adviser has spoken on behalf of his master, the king of Assyria, who sent him to taunt the living God.[n] When the Lord your God hears, perhaps he will punish him for the things he has said.[o] So pray for this remnant that remains.’”[p]

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 36:13 tn The Hebrew text includes “and he said.”
  2. Isaiah 36:16 tn Heb “make with me a blessing and come out to me.”
  3. Isaiah 36:18 tn Heb “Have the gods of the nations rescued, each his land, from the hand of the king of Assyria?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course not!”
  4. Isaiah 36:19 tn The rhetorical questions suggest the answer, “Nowhere. They seem to have disappeared in the face of Assyria’s might.”
  5. Isaiah 36:19 tn Heb “that they rescued Samaria from my hand?” But this gives the impression that the gods of Sepharvaim were responsible for protecting Samaria, which is obviously not the case. The implied subject of the plural verb “rescued” must be the generic “gods of the nations/lands” (vv. 18, 20).
  6. Isaiah 36:20 tn Heb “that the Lord might rescue Jerusalem from my hand?” The logic runs as follows: Since no god has ever been able to withstand the Assyrian onslaught, how can the people of Jerusalem possibly think the Lord will rescue them?
  7. Isaiah 36:22 sn As a sign of grief and mourning.
  8. Isaiah 37:1 tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.
  9. Isaiah 37:2 tn Heb “elders of the priests” (so KJV, NAB, NASB); NCV “the older priests”; NRSV, TEV, CEV “the senior priests.”
  10. Isaiah 37:3 tn In the Hebrew text this verse begins with “they said to him” (cf. NRSV).
  11. Isaiah 37:3 tn Or “rebuke” (KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV), or “correction.”
  12. Isaiah 37:3 tn Or “contempt”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “disgrace.”
  13. Isaiah 37:3 tn Heb “when sons come to the cervical opening and there is no strength to give birth.”
  14. Isaiah 37:4 tn Heb “all the words of the chief adviser whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to taunt the living God.”
  15. Isaiah 37:4 tn Heb “and rebuke the words which the Lord your God hears.”
  16. Isaiah 37:4 tn Heb “and lift up a prayer on behalf of the remnant that is found.”
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