ISAIAH 37

[당찬 엄마]

Jerusalem's Deliverance Foretold

   1 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes

and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the

LORD.  2 He sent Eliakim the palace administrator,

Shebnathe secretary, and the leading priests, all

wearing sackcloth, to the prophet lsaiah son of Amoz.

3 They told him, "This is what Hezekiah says: This day

is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when

children come to the moment of birth and there is no

strength to deliver them.  4 It may be that the LORD your

God will hear the words of the field commander, whom

his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the

living God, and that he will rebuke him for the words

the LORD your God has heard. Therefore pray for the

remnant that still survives."

   5 When King Hezekiah's officials came to lsaiah,

6 Isaiah said to them, "Tell your master, 'This is what the

LORD says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard--

those words with which the underlings of the king of

Assyria have blasphemed me.  7 Listen! When he hears

a certain report, I will make him want to return to his

own country, and there I will have him cut down with

the sword.' "

   8 When the field commander heard that the king of

Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the

king fighting against Libnah.

   9 Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah,

the king of Cush, was marching out to fight against

him. When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah

with this word:  10 "Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do

not let the god you depend on deceive you when he

says, 'Jeresalem will not be given into the hands of the

king of Assyria.'  11 Surely you have heard what the kings

of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying

them completely. And will you be delivered?  12 Did the

gods of the nations that were destroyed by my

predecessors deliver them--the gods of Gozan, Harran,

Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar?

13 Where is the king of Hamath or the king of Arpad?

Where are the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena and lvvah?"

Hezekiah's Prayer

   14 Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers

and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the LORD
and spread it out before the LORD.  15 And Hezekiah

prayed to the LORD:  16 "LORD Almighty, the God of lsrael,

enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God

over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made

heaven and earth.  17 Give ear, LORD, and hear; open

your eyes, LORD, and see; listen to all the words

Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.

   18 "It is true, LORD, that the Assyrian kings have laid

waste all these peoples and their lands.  19 They have

thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for

they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned

by human hands.  20 Now, LORD our God, deliver us from

his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may

know that you, LORD, are the only God."

Sennacherib's Fall

   21 Then lsaiah son of Amoz sent a message to

Hezekiah: "This is what the LORD, the God of lsrael,

says: Because you have prayed to me concerning

Sennacheirb king of Assyria,  22 this is the word the LORD

has spoken against him:

"Virgin Daughter Zion

   despises and mocks you.

Daughter Jerusalem

   tosses her head as you flee.

23 Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed?

   Against whom have you raised your voice

and lifted your eyes in pride?

   Against the Holy One of lsrael!

24 By your messengers

   you have ridiculed the Lord.

And you have said,

   'With my many chariots

I have ascended the heights of the mountains,

   the utmost heights of Lebanon.

I have cut down its tallest cedars,

   the choicest of its junipers.

I have reached its remotest heights,

   the finest of its forests.

25 I have dug wells in foreign lands

   and drunk the water there.

With the soles of my feet

   I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.'

26 "Have you not heard?

   Long ago I ordained it.

In days of old I planned it;

   now I have brought it to pass,

that you have turned fortified cities

   into piles of stone.

27 Their people, drained of power,

   are dismayed and put to shame.

They are like plants in the field,

   like tender green shoots,

like grass sprouting on the roof,

   scorched before it grows up.

28 "But I know where you are

   and when you come and go

   and how you rege against me.

29 Because you rage against me

   and because your insolence has reached my ears,

I will put my hook in your nose

   and my bit in your mouth,

and I will make you return

   by the way you came.

      30 "This will be the sign for you, Hezekiah:

"This year you will eat what grows by itself,

   and the second year what springs from that.

But in the third year sow and reap,

   plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

31 Once more a remnant of the kingdom of Judah

   will take root below and bear fruit above.

32 For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant,

   and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.

The zeal of the LORD Almighty

   will accomplish this.

      33 "Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning

the king of Assyria:

"He will not enter this city

   or shoot an arrow here.

He will not come before it with shield

   or build a siege ramp against it.

34 By the way that he came he will return;

   he will not enter this city,"

   declares the LORD.

35 "I will defend this city and save it,

   for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!"

      36 Then the angel of the LORD went out and put to

death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the

Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next

morning--there were all the dead bodies!  37 So

Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew.

He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.

      38 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of

his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer

killed him with the sword, and they escaped to the land

of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.