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Home > Bible > Isaiah > Chapter 37
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Isaiah Chapter 37

Hezekiah, his mourning and prayer. God's promise of protection. The Assyrian army is destroyed. Sennacherib is slain.

English (Douay-Rheims)

1 And it came to pass, when king Ezechias had heard it, that he rent his garments and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord. 2 And he sent Eliacim who was over the house, and Sobna the scribe, and the ancients of the priests covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the son of Amos the prophet. 3 And they said to him: Thus saith Ezechias: This day is a day of tribulation, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. 4 It may be the Lord thy God will hear the words of Rabsaces, whom the king of the Assyrians his master hath sent to blaspheme the living God, and to reproach with words which the Lord thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up by prayer for the remnant that is left. 5 And the servants of Ezechias came to Isaiah. 6 And Isaiah said to them: Thus shall you say to your master: Thus saith the Lord: Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of the Assyrians have blasphemed me. 7 Behold, I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a message, and shall return to his own country, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own country.

8 And Rabsaces returned, and found the king of the Assyrians besieging Lobna. For he had heard that he was departed from Lachis. 9 And he heard say about Tharaca the king of Ethiopia: He is come forth to fight against thee. And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Ezechias, saying: 10 Thus shall you speak to Ezechias the king of Juda, saying: Let not thy God deceive thee, in whom thou trustest, saying: Jerusalem shall not be given into the hands of the king of the Assyrians. 11 Behold thou hast heard all that the kings of the Assyrians have done to all countries which they have destroyed, and canst thou be delivered? 12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them whom my fathers have destroyed, Gozam, and Haram, and Reseph, and the children of Eden, that were in Thalassar? 13 Where is the king of Emath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Ana, and of Ava?

14 And Ezechias took the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it, and went up to the house of the Lord, and Ezechias spread it before the Lord. 15 And Ezechias prayed to the Lord, saying: 16 Lord of hosts, God of Israel who sitteth upon the cherubims, thou alone art the God of all the kingdoms of the earth, thou hast made heaven and earth. 17 Incline, O Lord, thy ear, and hear: open, O Lord, thy eyes, and see, and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he hath sent to blaspheme the living God. 18 For of a truth, O Lord, the kings of the Assyrians have laid waste lands, and their countries. 19 And they have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the works of men's hands, of wood and stone: and they broke them in pieces. 20 And now, O Lord our God, save us out of his hand: and let all the kingdoms of the earth know, that thou only art the Lord. 21 And Isaiah the son of Amos sent to Ezechias, saying: Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: For the prayer thou hast made to me concerning Sennacherib the king of the Assyrians: 22 This is the word which the Lord hath spoken of him:

The virgin the daughter of Sion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn: the daughter of Jerusalem hath wagged the head after thee.
23 Whom hast thou reproached, and whom hast thou blasphemed, and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thy eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel.
24 By the hand of thy servants thou hast reproached the Lord: and hast said: With the multitude of my chariots I have gone up to the height of the mountains, to the top of Libanus: and I will cut down its tall cedars, and its choice fir trees, and will enter to the top of its height, to the forest of its Carmel. Carmel... See these figurative expressions explained in the annotations on 2 Kings 19.
25 I have digged, and drunk water, and have dried up with the sole of my foot, all the rivers shut up in banks.
26 Hast thou not heard what I have done to him of old? from the days of old I have formed it: and now I have brought it to effect: and it hath come to pass that hills fighting together, and fenced cities should be destroyed.
27 The inhabitants of them were weak of hand, they trembled, and were confounded: they became like the grass of the field, and the herb of the pasture, and like the grass of the housetops, which withered before it was ripe.
28 I know thy dwelling, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.
29 When thou wast mad against me, thy pride came up to my ears: therefore I will put a ring in thy nose, and a bit between thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.

30 But to thee this shall be a sign: Eat this year the things that spring of themselves, and in the second year eat fruits: but in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. 31 And that which shall be saved of the house of Juda, and which is left, shall take root downward, and shall bear fruit upward: 32 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and salvation from mount Sion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this. 33 Wherefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of the Assyrians:

He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow into it, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a trench about it.
34 By the way that he came, he shall return, and into this city he shall not come, saith the Lord.
35 And I will protect this city, and will save it for my own sake, and for the sake of David my servant.

36 And the angel of the Lord went out and slew in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand. And they arose in the morning, and behold they were all dead corpses. 37 And Sennacherib the king of the Assyrians went out and departed, and returned, and dwelt in Ninive. 38 And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the temple of Nesroch his god, that Adramelech and Sarasar his sons slew him with the sword: and they fled into the land of Ararat, and Asarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

Latin (Clementine Vulgate)

1 Et factum est, cum audisset rex Ezechias, scidit vestimenta sua, et obvolutus est sacco, et intravit in domum Domini. 2 Et misit Eliacim, qui erat super domum, et Sobnam scribam, et seniores de sacerdotibus, opertos saccis, ad Isaiam, filium Amos, prophetam, 3 et dixerunt ad eum: Hæc dicit Ezechias: Dies tribulationis, et correptionis, et blasphemiæ, dies hæc; quia venerunt filii usque ad partum, et virtus non est pariendi. 4 Si quomodo audiat Dominus Deus tuus verba Rabsacis, quem misit rex Assyriorum dominus suus ad blasphemandum Deum viventem et exprobrandum sermonibus quos audivit Dominus Deus tuus: leva ergo orationem pro reliquiis quæ repertæ sunt. 5 Et venerunt servi regis Ezechiæ ad Isaiam. 6 Et dixit ad eos Isaias: Hæc dicetis domino vestro: Hæc dicit Dominus: Ne timeas a facie verborum quæ audisti, quibus blasphemaverunt pueri regis Assyriorum me. 7 Ecce ego dabo ei spiritum, et audiet nuntium, et revertetur ad terram suam, et corruere eum faciam gladio in terra sua.

8 Reversus est autem Rabsaces, et invenit regem Assyriorum præliantem adversus Lobnam: audierat enim quia profectus esset de Lachis. 9 Et audivit de Tharaca rege Æthiopiæ, dicentes: Egressus est ut pugnet contra te. Quod cum audisset, misit nuntios ad Ezechiam, dicens: 10 Hæc dicetis Ezechiæ regi Judæ, loquentes: Non te decipiat Deus tuus in quo tu confidis, dicens: Non dabitur Jerusalem in manu regis Assyriorum. 11 Ecce tu audisti omnia quæ fecerunt reges Assyriorum omnibus terris, quas subverterunt: et tu poteris liberari? 12 Numquid eruerunt eos dii gentium quos subverterunt patres mei, Gozam, et Haram, et Reseph, et filios Eden qui erant in Thalassar? 13 Ubi est rex Emath, et rex Arphad, et rex urbis Sepharvaim, Ana, et Ava?

14 Et tulit Ezechias libros de manu nuntiorum, et legit eos, et ascendit in domum Domini, et expandit eos Ezechias coram Domino: 15 et oravit Ezechias ad Dominum, dicens: 16 Domine exercituum, Deus Israël, qui sedes super cherubim, tu es Deus solus omnium regnorum terræ: tu fecisti cælum et terram. 17 Inclina, Domine, aurem tuam, et audi; aperi, Domine, oculos tuos, et vide: et audi omnia verba Sennacherib, quæ misit ad blasphemandum Deum viventem. 18 Vere enim, Domine, desertas fecerunt reges Assyriorum terras, et regiones earum, 19 et dederunt deos earum igni: non enim erant dii, sed opera manuum hominum, lignum et lapis, et comminuerunt eos. 20 Et nunc, Domine Deus noster, salva nos de manu ejus, et cognoscant omnia regna terræ quia tu es Dominus solus. 21 Et misit Isaias, filius Amos, ad Ezechiam, dicens: Hæc dicit Dominus Deus Israël: Pro quibus rogasti me de Sennacherib, rege Assyriorum, 22 hoc est verbum quod locutus est Dominus super eum:

Despexit te et subsannavit te,
virgo filia Sion;
post te caput movit,
filia Jerusalem.
23 Cui exprobrasti? et quem blasphemasti?
et super quem exaltasti vocem,
et levasti altitudinem oculorum tuorum?
ad Sanctum Israël.
24 In manu servorum tuorum exprobrasti Domino,
et dixisti: In multitudine quadrigarum mearum
ego ascendi altitudinem montium juga Libani;
et succidam excelsa cedrorum ejus,
et electas abietes illius,
et introibo altitudinem summitatis ejus,
saltum Carmeli ejus.
25 Ego fodi, et bibi aquam,
et exsiccavi vestigio pedis mei
omnes rivos aggerum.
26 Numquid non audisti quæ olim fecerim ei?
Ex diebus antiquis ego plasmavi illud;
et nunc adduxi,
et factum est in eradicationem collium compugnantium,
et civitatum munitarum.
27 Habitatores earum breviata manu
contremuerunt, et confusi sunt.
Facti sunt sicut fœnum agri,
et gramen pascuæ,
et herba tectorum,
quæ exaruit antequam maturesceret.
28 Habitationem tuam, et egressum tuum,
et introitum tuum cognovi,
et insaniam tuam contra me.
29 Cum fureres adversum me,
superbia tua ascendit in aures meas.
Ponam ergo circulum in naribus tuis,
et frenum in labiis tuis,
et reducam te in viam
per quem venisti.

30 Tibi autem hoc erit signum: comede hoc anno quæ sponte nascuntur, et in anno secundo pomis vescere; in anno autem tertio seminate et metite, et plantate vineas, et comedite fructum earum. 31 Et mittet id quod salvatum fuerit de domo Juda, et quod reliquum est, radicem deorsum, et faciet fructum sursum: 32 quia de Jerusalem exibunt reliquiæ, et salvatio de monte Sion: zelus Domini exercituum faciet istud. 33 Propterea hæc dicit Dominus de rege Assyriorum:

Non intrabit civitatem hanc,
et non jaciet ibi sagittam,
et non occupabit eam clypeus,
et non mittet in circuitu ejus aggerem.
34 In via qua venit, per eam revertetur,
et civitatem hanc non ingredietur, dicit Dominus.
35 Et protegam civitatem istam, ut salvem eam
propter me, et propter David, servum meum.

36 Egressus est autem angelus Domini, et percussit in castris Assyriorum centum octoginta quinque millia. Et surrexerunt mane, et ecce omnes cadavera mortuorum. 37 Et egressus est, et abiit, et reversus est Sennacherib, rex Assyriorum, et habitavit in Ninive. 38 Et factum est, cum adoraret in templo Nesroch deum suum, Adramelech et Sarasar, filii ejus, percusserunt eum gladio, fugeruntque in terram Ararat; et regnavit Asarhaddon, filius ejus, pro eo.

Copyright © 2008 by Kevin Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

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