Isaiah 37 :: Bible in Basic English (BBE)

Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah's Help

(2Ki 19:1–7 )

Isa 37:1And on hearing it Hezekiah took off his robe and put on haircloth and went into the house of the Lord.

Isa 37:2And he sent Eliakim, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and the chief priests, dressed in haircloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.

Isa 37:3

Isa 37:3And they said to him, Hezekiah says, This day is a day of trouble and punishment and shame: for the children are ready to come to birth, but there is no strength to give birth to them.

Isa 37:4

Isa 37:4It may be that the Lord your God will give ear to the words of the Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria, his master, has sent to say evil things against the living God, and will make his words come to nothing: so make your prayer for the rest of the people.

Isa 37:5

Isa 37:5So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

Isa 37:6

Isa 37:6And Isaiah said to them, This is what you are to say to your master: The Lord says, Be not troubled by the words which the servants of the king of Assyria have said against me in your hearing.

Isa 37:7

Isa 37:7See, I will put a spirit into him, and bad news will come to his ears, and he will go back to his land; and there I will have him put to death.

(2Ki 19:8–19 )

Isa 37:8

Isa 37:8So the Rab-shakeh went back, and when he got there the king of Assyria was making war against Libnah: for it had come to his ears that the king of Assyria had gone away from Lachish.

Isa 37:9

Isa 37:9And when news came to him that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, had made an attack on him, ... And he sent representatives to Hezekiah, king of Judah, saying,

Isa 37:10

Isa 37:10This is what you are to say to Hezekiah, king of Judah: Let not your God, in whom is your faith, give you a false hope, saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.

Isa 37:11

Isa 37:11No doubt the story has come to your ears of what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, putting them to the curse: and will you be kept safe from their fate?

Isa 37:12

Isa 37:12Did the gods of the nations keep safe those on whom my fathers sent destruction, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar?

Isa 37:13

Isa 37:13Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the town of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivva?

Hezekiah's Prayer in the Temple

Isa 37:14

Isa 37:14And Hezekiah took the letter from the hands of those who had come with it; and after reading it, Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, opening the letter there before the Lord,

Isa 37:15

Isa 37:15And he made prayer to the Lord, saying,

Isa 37:16

Isa 37:16O Lord of armies, the God of Israel, seated between the winged ones, you only are the God of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth.

Isa 37:17

Isa 37:17Let your ear be turned to us, O Lord; let your eyes be open, O Lord, and see: take note of all the words of Sennacherib who has sent men to say evil against the living God.

Isa 37:18

Isa 37:18Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have made waste all the nations and their lands,

Isa 37:19

Isa 37:19And have given their gods to the fire: for they were no gods, but wood and stone, the work of men's hands; so they have given them to destruction.

Isa 37:20

Isa 37:20But now, O Lord our God, give us salvation from his hand, so that it may be clear to all the kingdoms of the earth that you, and you only, are the Lord.

God Answers through Isaiah

(2Ki 19:20–34 )

Isa 37:21

Isa 37:21Then Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, saying, The Lord, the God of Israel, says, The prayer you have made to me against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, has come to my ears.

Isa 37:22

Isa 37:22This is the word which the Lord has said about him: In the eyes of the virgin daughter of Zion you are shamed and laughed at; the daughter of Jerusalem has made sport of you.

Isa 37:23

Isa 37:23Against whom have you said evil and bitter things? and against whom has your voice been loud and your eyes lifted up? even against the Holy One of Israel.

Isa 37:24

Isa 37:24You have sent your servants with evil words against the Lord, and have said, With all my war-carriages I have come up to the top of the mountains, to the inmost parts of Lebanon; and its tall cedars will be cut down, and the best trees of its woods: I will come up into his highest places, into his thick woods.

Isa 37:25

Isa 37:25I have made water-holes and taken their waters, and with my foot I have made all the rivers of Egypt dry.

Isa 37:26

Isa 37:26Has it not come to your ears how I did it long before, purposing it in times long past? Now I have given effect to my design, so that by you strong towns might be turned into masses of broken walls.

Isa 37:27

Isa 37:27This is why their townsmen had no power, they were broken and put to shame; they were like the grass of the field, or a green plant; like the grass on the house-tops, which a cold wind makes waste.

Isa 37:28

Isa 37:28But I have knowledge of your getting up and your resting, of your going out and your coming in.

Isa 37:29

Isa 37:29Because your wrath against me and your pride have come to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my cord in your lips, and I will make you go back by the way you came.

Isa 37:30

Isa 37:30And this will be the sign to you: you will get your food this year from what comes up of itself, and in the second year from the produce of the same; and in the third year you will put in your seed, and get in the grain, and make vine-gardens, and take of their fruit.

Isa 37:31

Isa 37:31And those of Judah who are still living will again take root in the earth, and give fruit.

Isa 37:32

Isa 37:32For from Jerusalem those who have been kept safe will go out, and those who are still living will go out of Mount Zion: by the fixed purpose of the Lord of armies this will be done.

Isa 37:33

Isa 37:33For this cause the Lord says about the king of Assyria, He will not come into this town, or send an arrow against it; he will not come before it with arms, or put up an earthwork against it.

Isa 37:34

Isa 37:34By the way he came he will go back, and he will not get into this town.

Isa 37:35

Isa 37:35For I will keep this town safe, for my honour, and for the honour of my servant David.

Assyrians Destroyed

(2Ki 19:35–37 )

Isa 37:36

Isa 37:36And the angel of the Lord went out and put to death in the army of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand men: and when the people got up early in the morning, there was nothing to be seen but dead bodies.

Isa 37:37

Isa 37:37Sennacherib, king of Assyria, went back to his place at Nineveh.

Isa 37:38

Isa 37:38And it came about, when he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer put him to death with the sword, and they went in flight into the land of Ararat. And Esar-haddon, his son, became king in his place.

The Bible in Basic English was translated by Professor Samuel Henry Hooke (1874-1968)
This translation of the Bible is in the public domain.

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Isaiah Chapter 37 — Additional Translations:

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