Study Desk

"‘This will be the sign for you:^(au) This year you will eat what grows on its own, and in the second year what grows from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root^(av) downward and bear fruit upward.

For a remnant^(aw) will go out from Jerusalem and survivors, from Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this.'^(ax)

"Therefore, this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria: He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or build up an assault ramp against it.

He will go back the way he came, and he will not enter this city. This is the Lord 's declaration.

I will defend this city and rescue it because of Me^(ay) and because of My servant David."^(az)

Then^(ba) the angel of the Lord ^(bb) went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies!

So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and left. He returned home and lived in Nineveh.^(bc)

One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat.^(bd) Then his son Esar-haddon^(be) became king in his place.

In those days Hezekiah became terminally ill.^(a) The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came and said to him, "This is what the Lord says: ‘Put your affairs in order,^[a](b) for you are about to die; you will not recover.'"^[b]

Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord .

He said, "Please, Lord , remember how I have walked before You faithfully and wholeheartedly,^(c) and have done what pleases You."^[c](d) And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah:

"Go and tell Hezekiah that this is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I am going to add 15 years to your life.^[d](e)

And I will deliver you and this city from the power of the king of Assyria; I will defend this city.^(f)

This is the sign to you^(g) from the Lord that He will do what^[e] He has promised:^[f]

I am going to make the sun's shadow that goes down on Ahaz's stairway go back by 10 steps."^(h) So the sun's shadow^[g] went back the 10 steps it had descended.

A poem by Hezekiah king of Judah after he had been sick and had recovered from his illness:

I said: In the prime^[h] of my life^[i](i) I must go to the gates of Sheol;^(j) I am deprived of the rest of my years.

I said: I will never see the Lord , the Lord in the land of the living;^(k) I will not look on humanity any longer with the inhabitants of what is passing away.^[j]

My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me like a shepherd's tent.^(l) I have rolled up my life like a weaver;^(m) He cuts me off from the loom.^[k](n) You make an end of me from day until night.^(o)

I thought until the morning: He will break all my bones like a lion; You make an end of me day and night.

I chirp like a swallow or a crane; I moan like a dove.^(p) My eyes grow weak looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed; support me.^(q)

What can I say? He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done it. I walk along slowly all my years^(r) because of the bitterness of my soul,^(s)

Lord, because of these promises people live,^(t) and in all of them is the life of my spirit as well; You have restored me to health^(u) and let me live.^(v)

Indeed, it was for my own welfare that I had such great bitterness;^(w) but Your love has delivered me from the Pit of destruction,^(x) for You have thrown all my sins behind Your back.^(y)

For Sheol cannot thank You; Death cannot praise You.^(z) Those who go down to the Pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness.

The living, only the living can thank You, as I do today; a father will make Your faithfulness known to children.^(aa)

The Lord will^[l] save me; we will play stringed instruments all the days of our lives at the house of the Lord .^(ab)

Now Isaiah^(ac) had said, "Let them take a lump of pressed figs and apply it to his infected skin, so that he may recover."

And Hezekiah had asked, "What is the sign that I will go up to the Lord 's temple?"

At that time^(a) Merodach-baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah since he heard that he had been sick and had recovered.

Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them his treasure house—the silver, the gold, the spices, and the precious oil—and all his armory, and everything that was found in his treasuries.^(b) There was nothing in his palace and in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.^(c)

Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and asked him, "Where did these men come from and what did they say to you?" Hezekiah replied, "They came to me from a distant country, from Babylon."

Isaiah asked, "What have they seen in your palace?" Hezekiah answered, "They have seen everything in my palace. There isn't anything in my treasuries that I didn't show them."

Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the Lord of Hosts:^(d)

‘The time will certainly come when everything in your palace and all that your fathers have stored up until this day will be carried off to Babylon; nothing will be left,' says the Lord .^(e)

‘Some of your descendants who come from you will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.'"

Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good," for he thought: There will be peace and security during my lifetime.^(f)

"Comfort, comfort My people,"^(a) says your God.

"Speak tenderly to^[a] Jerusalem, and announce to her that her time of forced labor is over, her iniquity^(b) has been pardoned,^(c) and she has received from the Lord 's hand double for all her sins."^(d)

A voice of one crying out: Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness;^(e) make a straight highway for our God in the desert.^(f)

Every valley will be lifted up, and every mountain and hill will be leveled; the uneven ground will become smooth and the rough places, a plain.^(g)

And the glory of the Lord will appear,^(h) and all humanity^[b] together will see it,⁽ⁱ⁾ for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.^(j)

A voice was saying, "Cry out!" Another^[c] said, "What should I cry out?" "All humanity is grass,^(k) and all its goodness is like the flower of the field.^(l)

The grass withers, the flowers fade when the breath^[d] of the Lord blows on them;^[e] indeed, the people are grass.

The grass withers, the flowers fade,^(m) but the word of our God remains forever."⁽ⁿ⁾

Zion, herald of good news, go up on a high mountain.^(o) Jerusalem, herald of good news,^(p) raise your voice loudly. Raise it, do not be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah, "Here is your God!"^(q)

See, the Lord God comes with strength, and His power establishes His rule.^(r) His reward is with Him,^(s) and His gifts accompany Him.

He protects His flock like a shepherd;^(t) He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them in the fold of His garment. He gently leads those that are nursing.

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand or marked off the heavens with the span of his hand?^(u) Who has gathered the dust of the earth in a measure or weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills in the scales?

Who has directed^[f] the Spirit of the Lord , or who gave Him His counsel?^(v)

Who did He consult with? Who gave Him understanding^(w) and taught Him the paths of justice? Who taught Him knowledge and showed Him the way of understanding?

Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are considered as a speck of dust in the scales; He lifts up the islands like fine dust.

Lebanon is not enough for fuel, or its animals enough for a burnt offering.^(x)

All the nations are as nothing before Him; they are considered by Him as nothingness and emptiness.^(y)

Who will you compare God with? What likeness will you compare Him to?^(z)

To an idol?—something that a smelter casts, and a metalworker plates with gold and makes silver welds for it?^(aa)

To one who shapes a pedestal, choosing wood that does not rot?^[g] He looks for a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not fall over.^(ab)

Do you not know?^(ac) Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not considered the foundations of the earth?^(ad)

God is enthroned above the circle of the earth; its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.^(ae) He stretches out the heavens like thin cloth^(af) and spreads them out like a tent to live in.^(ag)

He reduces princes to nothing^(ah) and makes judges of the earth irrational.

They are barely planted, barely sown, their stem hardly takes root in the ground when He blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind carries them away like stubble.^(ai)

"Who will you compare Me to,^(aj) or who is My equal?" asks the Holy One.

Look up^[h] and see: who created^(ak) these? He brings out the starry host by number; He calls all of them by name.^(al) Because of His great power and strength, not one of them is missing.

Jacob, why do you say, and Israel, why do you assert: "My way is hidden from the Lord , and my claim is ignored by my God"?^(am)

Do you not know? Have you not heard? Yahweh is the everlasting God,^(an) the Creator of the whole earth. He never grows faint or weary; there is no limit to His understanding.^(ao)

He gives strength to the weary and strengthens the powerless.

Youths may faint and grow weary, and young men stumble and fall,

but those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength;^(ap) they will soar on wings like eagles;^(aq) they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not faint.