Study Desk

Woe, you destroyer never destroyed, you traitor never betrayed! When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed. When you have finished betraying, they will betray you.^(a)

Lord , be gracious to us! We wait for You.^(b) Be our strength every morning and our salvation in time of trouble.^(c)

The peoples flee at the thunderous noise;^(d) the nations scatter when You rise in Your majesty.

Your spoil will be gathered as locusts are gathered; people will swarm over it like an infestation of locusts.

The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high; He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.

There will be times of security for you— a storehouse of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of the Lord is Zion's treasure.^(e)

Listen! Their warriors cry loudly in the streets; the messengers of peace weep bitterly.^(f)

The highways are deserted; travel has ceased. An agreement has been broken,^(g) cities^[a] despised, and human life disregarded.

The land mourns and withers;^(h) Lebanon is ashamed and decayed. Sharon is like a desert; Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.

"Now I will rise up,"⁽ⁱ⁾ says the Lord . "Now I will lift Myself up. Now I will be exalted.

You will conceive chaff;^(j) you will give birth to stubble. Your breath is fire that will consume you.

The peoples will be burned to ashes, like thorns cut down and burned in a fire.

You who are far off, hear what I have done; you who are near,^(k) know My strength."

The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling seizes the ungodly: "Who among us can dwell with a consuming fire?^(l) Who among us can dwell with ever-burning flames?"

The one who lives righteously and speaks rightly,^(m) who refuses gain from extortion, whose hand never takes a bribe, who stops his ears from listening to murderous plots^[b] and shuts his eyes to avoid endorsing evil^[c](n)—

he will dwell on the heights; his refuge will be the rocky fortresses, his food provided, his water assured.

Your eyes will see the King in His beauty;^(o) you will see a vast land.^(p)

Your mind will meditate on the past terror: "Where is the accountant?^[d] Where is the tribute collector?^[e] Where is the one who spied out our defenses?"^[f]

You will no longer see the barbarians, a people whose speech is difficult to comprehend— who stammer in a language that is not understood.^(q)

Look at Zion, the city of our festival times. Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a peaceful pasture,^(r) a tent that does not wander; its tent pegs will not be pulled up nor will any of its cords be loosened.^(s)

For the majestic One, our Lord , will be there,^(t) a place of rivers and broad streams where ships that are rowed will not go, and majestic vessels will not pass.^(u)

For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our lawgiver,^(v) the Lord is our King. He will save us.^(w)

Your ropes are slack; they cannot hold the base of the mast or spread out the flag. Then abundant spoil will be divided, the lame will plunder it,

and none there will say, "I am sick." The people who dwell there will be forgiven^(x) their iniquity.^(y)

You nations, come here and listen; you peoples, pay attention!^(a) Let the earth hear, and all that fills it, the world and all that comes from it.^(b)

The Lord is angry with all the nations— furious with all their armies.^(c) He will set them apart for destruction,^(d) giving them over to slaughter.

Their slain will be thrown out, and the stench of their corpses will rise;^(e) the mountains will flow^[a] with their blood.^(f)

All^[b] the heavenly bodies^(g) will dissolve. The skies will roll up like a scroll,^(h) and their stars will all wither as leaves wither on the vine, and foliage on the fig tree.⁽ⁱ⁾

When My sword has drunk its fill^[c](j) in the heavens, it will then come down on Edom^(k) and on the people I have set apart for destruction.

The Lord 's sword is covered with blood. It drips with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams.^(l) For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,^(m) a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

The wild oxen will be struck^[d] down with them, and young bulls with the mighty bulls. Their land will be soaked with^[e] blood, and their soil will be saturated with fat.

For the Lord has a day of vengeance,⁽ⁿ⁾ a time of paying back Edom for its hostility against Zion.

Edom's streams will be turned into pitch, her soil into sulfur;^(o) her land will become burning pitch.

It will never go out—day or night. Its smoke will go up forever.^(p) It will be desolate, from generation to generation; no one will pass through it forever and ever.^(q)

The desert owl^[f] and the screech owl^[g] will possess it, and the great owl and the raven will dwell there.^(r) The Lord will stretch out a measuring line and a plumb line over her for her destruction and chaos.^(s)

No nobles will be left to proclaim a king, and all her princes will come to nothing.

Her palaces will be overgrown with thorns; her fortified cities, with thistles and briers.^(t) She will become a dwelling for jackals, an abode^[h] for ostriches.^(u)

The desert creatures will meet hyenas, and one wild goat will call to another. Indeed, the screech owl will stay there and will find a resting place for herself.

The sand partridge^[i] will make her nest there; she will lay and hatch her eggs and will gather her brood under her shadow. Indeed, the birds of prey will gather there, each with its mate.^(v)

Search and read the scroll of the Lord :^(w) Not one of them will be missing, none will be lacking its mate, because He has ordered it by my^[j] mouth, and He will gather them by His Spirit.

He has ordained a lot for them; His hand allotted their portion with a measuring line. They will possess it forever;^(x) they will dwell in it from generation to generation.

The wilderness and the dry land will be glad; the desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose.^[a][b](a)

It will blossom abundantly and will also rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon.^(b) They will see the glory of the Lord ,^(c) the splendor of our God.^(d)

Strengthen the weak hands, steady the shaking knees!^(e)

Say to the cowardly: "Be strong; do not fear! Here is your God; vengeance is coming.^(f) God's retribution is coming; He will save you."^(g)

Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped.^(h)

Then the lame will leap like a deer,⁽ⁱ⁾ and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy,^(j) for water will gush in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;^(k)

the parched ground will become a pool of water, and the thirsty land springs of water.^(l) In the haunt of jackals,^(m) in their lairs, there will be grass, reeds, and papyrus.

A road will be there and a way;⁽ⁿ⁾ it will be called the Holy Way.^(o) The unclean will not travel on it,^(p) but it will be for the one who walks the path.^(q) Even the fool will not go astray.

There will be no lion there, and no vicious beast will go up on it; they will not be found there. But the redeemed will walk on it,

and the redeemed of the Lord will return^(r) and come to Zion with singing, crowned with unending joy. Joy and gladness will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee.^(s)

In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah,^(a) Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

Then the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh, along with a massive army, from Lachish^(b) to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. The Assyrian stood near the conduit of the upper pool, by the road to the Fuller's Field.^(c)

Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the court secretary,^(d) and Joah son of Asaph, the court historian, came out to him.

The Rabshakeh said to them, "Tell Hezekiah: The great king, the king of Assyria, says this: What are you relying on?^[a]

I^[b] say that your strategy and military preparedness are mere words. What are you now relying on that you have rebelled against me?^(e)

Look, you are trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff^(f) that will enter and pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. This is how Pharaoh king of Egypt is to all who trust in him.^(g)

Suppose you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God.' Isn't He the One whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You are to worship at this altar'?^(h)

Now make a deal with my master, the king of Assyria. I'll give you 2,000 horses if you're able to supply riders for them!

How then can you drive back a single officer among the weakest of my master's officers and trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen?⁽ⁱ⁾

Have I attacked this land to destroy it without the Lord 's approval? The Lord said to me, ‘Attack this land and destroy it.'"

Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic,^(j) since we understand it. Don't speak to us in Hebrew^[c] within earshot of the people who are on the wall."

But the Rabshakeh replied, "Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men who are sitting on the wall, who are destined with you to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?"

Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out loudly in Hebrew:^[d] Listen to the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!

This is what the king says: "Don't let Hezekiah deceive you,^(k) for he cannot deliver you.

Don't let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord , saying, ‘The Lord will certainly deliver us! This city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.'"

Don't listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: "Make peace^[e] with me and surrender to me. Then every one of you may eat from his own vine and his own fig tree^(l) and drink water from his own cistern

until I come and take you away to a land like your own land—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you by saying, ‘The Lord will deliver us.'^(m) Has any one of the gods of the nations⁽ⁿ⁾ delivered his land from the power of the king of Assyria?

Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad?^(o) Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my power?^(p)

Who among all the gods of these lands ever delivered his land from my power? So will the Lord deliver Jerusalem."

But they kept silent; they didn't say anything, for the king's command was, "Don't answer him."^(q)

Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the court secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the court historian, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and reported to him the words of the Rabshakeh.

When King Hezekiah heard their report,^(a) he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth,^(b) and went to the Lord 's temple.

Then he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the court secretary, and the leading priests, who were wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.

They said to him, "This is what Hezekiah says: ‘Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace,^(c) for children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to deliver them.^(d)

Perhaps Yahweh your God will hear all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria sent to mock the living God,^(e) and will rebuke him for the words that Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore offer a prayer for the surviving remnant.'"^(f)

So the servants of King Hezekiah went to Isaiah,

who said to them, "Tell your master this, ‘The Lord says: Don't be afraid^(g) because of the words you have heard, which the king of Assyria's attendants have blasphemed Me with.^(h)

I am about to put a spirit⁽ⁱ⁾ in him and he will hear a rumor and return to his own land, where I will cause him to fall by the sword.'"^(j)

When the Rabshakeh heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish,^(k) he returned and found him fighting against Libnah.^(l)

The king had heard this about Tirhakah king of Cush:^(m) "He has set out to fight against you." So when he heard this, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

"Say this to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Don't let your God, whom you trust, deceive you⁽ⁿ⁾ by promising that Jerusalem won't be handed over to the king of Assyria.

Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries: they completely destroyed them. Will you be rescued?

Did the gods of the nations^(o) that my predecessors destroyed rescue them—Gozan,^(p) Haran,^(q) Rezeph, and the Edenites in Telassar?

Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, or Ivvah?'"

Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers, read it, then went up to the Lord 's temple and spread it out before the Lord .^(r)

Then Hezekiah prayed^(s) to the Lord :

Lord of Hosts, God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim,^(t) You are God^(u)—You alone^(v)—of all the kingdoms of the earth.^(w) You made the heavens and the earth.^(x)

Listen closely, Lord , and hear;^(y) open Your eyes, Lord , and see.^(z) Hear all the words that Sennacherib has sent to mock the living God.^(aa)

Lord , it is true that the kings of Assyria have devastated all these countries and their lands.

They have thrown their gods into the fire, for they were not gods^(ab) but made by human hands^(ac)—wood and stone.^(ad) So they have destroyed them.

Now, Lord our God, save us from his power so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the Lord ^(ae)—You alone.^(af)

Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: "The Lord , the God of Israel, says: ‘Because you prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria,

this is the word the Lord has spoken against him: Virgin Daughter Zion^(ag) despises you and scorns you: Daughter Jerusalem shakes her head^(ah) behind your back.^[a]

Who is it you have mocked^(ai) and blasphemed? Who have you raised your voice against and lifted your eyes in pride?^(aj) Against the Holy One of Israel!^(ak)

You have mocked the Lord through^[b] your servants. You have said, "With my many chariots^(al) I have gone up to the heights of the mountains, to the far recesses of Lebanon. I cut down its tallest cedars, its choice cypress trees. I came to its distant heights, its densest forest.

I dug wells^[c] and drank water. I dried up all the streams of Egypt with the soles of my feet."^(am)

Have you not heard?^(an) I designed it long ago; I planned it in days gone by.^(ao) I have now brought it to pass, and you have crushed fortified cities^(ap) into piles of rubble.

Their inhabitants have become powerless, dismayed, and ashamed. They are plants of the field, tender grass, grass on the rooftops, blasted by the east wind.^[d]

But I know^[e] your sitting down, your going out and your coming in,^(aq) and your raging against Me.

Because your raging against Me and your arrogance have reached My ears,^(ar) I will put My hook in your nose^(as) and My bit in your mouth;^(at) I will make you go back the way you came.