Isa 10:28-32, 22:1-7, 28:14-22, 29:1-9, Isa 36-37 | ESV | STEP | He has come to Aiath ; he has passed through Migron ; at Michmash he stores his baggage ;

28 He has come to Aiath;
he has passed through ^aMigron;
at Michmash he stores ^bhis baggage;
29 they have crossed over ^cthe pass;
at ^dGeba they lodge for the night;
^eRamah trembles;
^fGibeah of Saul has fled.
30 Cry aloud, O daughter of ^gGallim!
Give attention, O Laishah!
O poor ^hAnathoth!
31 Madmenah is in flight;
the inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety.
32 This very day he will halt at ⁱNob;
he will shake his fist
at the mount of ^jthe daughter of Zion,
the hill of Jerusalem.

Isaiah 22:1-7

An Oracle Concerning Jerusalem

1 The ^koracle concerning ^lthe valley of vision.

What do you mean that you have gone up,
all of you, to the housetops,
2 you who are full of shoutings,
tumultuous city, ^mexultant town?
Your slain are ⁿnot slain with the sword
or dead in battle.
3 ^oAll your leaders have fled together;
without the bow they were captured.
All of you who were found were captured,
though they had fled far away.
4 Therefore I said:
“Look away from me;
^plet me weep bitter tears;
do not labor to comfort me
concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
5 ^qFor the Lord God of hosts has ^ra day
of tumult and ^strampling and ^tconfusion
in ^uthe valley of vision,
a battering down of walls
and a shouting to the mountains.
6 And ^vElam bore the quiver
with chariots and horsemen,
and ^wKir uncovered the shield.
7 Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,
and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.

Isaiah 28:14-22

A Cornerstone in Zion

14 Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you ^xscoffers,
who rule this people in Jerusalem!
15 Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,
and with Sheol we have an agreement,
when the ^yoverwhelming whip passes through
it will not come to us,
for we have made ^zlies our refuge,
and in falsehood we have taken shelter”;
16 therefore thus says the Lord God,
^aa“Behold, I am the one who has laid ^{▼▼Dead Sea Scroll I am laying} as a foundation ^acin Zion,
a stone, a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation:
‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’
17 And I will make justice ^adthe line,
and righteousness ^aethe plumb line;
and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
and waters will overwhelm the shelter.”
18 Then ^afyour covenant with death will be annulled,
and your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
when the overwhelming scourge passes through,
you will be beaten down by it.
19 As often as it passes through it will take you;
^agfor morning by morning it will pass through,
by day and by night;
and it will be ^ahsheer terror to understand the message.
20 For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on,
and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in.
21 For the Lord will rise up ^aias on Mount Perazim;
^ajas in the Valley of ^akGibeon he will be roused;
to do his deed—strange is his deed!
and to work his work—alien is his work!
22 Now therefore do not ^alscoff,
lest your bonds be made strong;
for I have heard ^ama decree of destruction
from the Lord God of hosts against the whole land.

Isaiah 29:1-9

The Siege of Jerusalem

1 Ah, Ariel, Ariel,
the city ^anwhere David encamped!
Add year to year;
let the feasts run their round.
2 Yet I will distress Ariel,
and there shall be moaning and lamentation,
and she shall be to me like an Ariel. ^{▼▼ Ariel could mean lion of God, or hero (2 Samuel 23:20), or altar hearth (Ezekiel 43:15–16)}
3 ^apAnd I will encamp against you all around,
and will besiege you ^aqwith towers
and I will raise siegeworks against you.
4 ^arAnd you will be brought low; from the earth you shall speak,
and from the dust your speech will be bowed down;
your voice shall come from the ground like ^asthe voice of a ghost,
and from the dust your speech shall whisper.
5 But the multitude of your foreign foes shall be like ^atsmall dust,
and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff.
^auAnd in an instant, suddenly,
6 ^avyou will be visited by the Lord of hosts
with thunder and with earthquake and great noise,
with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.
7 And ^awthe multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel,
all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her,
shall be ^axlike a dream, a vision of the night.
8 ^ayAs when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he is eating,
and awakes with his hunger not satisfied,
or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he is drinking
and awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched,
so shall the multitude of all the nations be
that fight against Mount Zion.
9 Astonish yourselves ^{▼▼Or Linger awhile} and be astonished;
blind yourselves and be blind!
Be drunk, but not with wine;
^bastagger, but not with strong drink!

Isaiah 36

Sennacherib Invades Judah

1 ^bbIn the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, ^bcSennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. 2 ^bdAnd the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh ^{▼▼ Rabshakeh is the title of a high-ranking Assyrian military officer} from ^bfLachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem, with a great army. And he stood ^bgby the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field. 3 And there came out to him ^bhEliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and ^biShebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.

4 And the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the ^bjgreat king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this trust of yours? 5 Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me? 6 ^bkBehold, you are trusting in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 7 But if you say to me, “We trust in the Lord our God,” is it not he ^blwhose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar”? 8 Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. 9 How then can you repulse ^bma single captain among the least of my master’s servants, when ^bnyou trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 10 Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have come up against this land to destroy it? ^boThe Lord said to me, "Go up against this land and destroy it."’”

11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants ^bpin Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” 12 But the Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?”

13 Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! 14 Thus says the king: ^bq‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you. 15 Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord by saying, “The Lord will surely deliver us. This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” 16 Do not listen to Hezekiah. For thus says the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me ^{▼▼Hebrew Make a blessing with me} and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern, 17 until ^bsI come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18 Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? 19 ^btWhere are the gods of ^buHamath and ^bvArpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? ^bwHave they delivered Samaria out of my hand? 20 ^bxWho among all the gods of these lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”

21 But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s command was, “Do not answer him.” 22 ^byThen Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.

Isaiah 37

Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah’s Help

1 ^bzAs soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord. 2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet ^caIsaiah the son of Amoz. 3 They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a ^cbday of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; ^ccchildren have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. 4 ^cdIt may be that the Lord your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for ^cethe remnant that is left.’”

5 When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have reviled me. 7 Behold, ^cfI will put a spirit in him, so that ^cghe shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and ^chI will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’”

8 The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against ^ciLibnah, for he had heard that the king had left ^cjLachish. 9 Now the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of ^ckCush, ^{▼▼Probably Nubia} “He has set out to fight against you.” And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10 “Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah: ^cm‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. 11 Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered? 12 ^cnHave the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, ^coGozan, ^cpHaran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? 13 ^cqWhere is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?’”

Hezekiah’s Prayer for Deliverance

14 Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: 16 “O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, ^crenthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; ^csyou have made heaven and earth. 17 ^ctIncline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear ^cuall the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. 18 Truly, O Lord, ^cvthe kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, 19 and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. 20 So now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.”

Sennacherib’s Fall

21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22 this is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him:

“‘She despises you, she scorns you—
^cwthe virgin daughter of Zion;
she wags her head behind you—
the daughter of Jerusalem.
23 “‘Whom have you mocked and reviled?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes to the heights?
Against ^cxthe Holy One of Israel!
24 By your servants you have mocked the Lord,
and you have said, ^cyWith my many chariots
I have gone up the heights of the mountains,
to the far recesses of Lebanon,
^czto cut down its tallest cedars,
its choicest cypresses,
to come to its remotest height,
its most fruitful forest.
25 I dug wells
and drank waters,
to dry up with the sole of my foot
all ^dathe streams ^dbof Egypt.
26 ^dc“‘Have you not heard
that I determined it long ago?
I planned from days of old
what now I bring to pass,
that you should make fortified cities
crash into heaps of ruins,
27 while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,
are dismayed and confounded,
and have become like plants of the field
and like tender grass,
like grass on the housetops,
blighted ^{▼▼Some Hebrew manuscripts and 2 Kings 19:26; most Hebrew manuscripts like a field} before it is grown.
28 “‘I know your sitting down
and your going out and coming in,
and your raging against me.
29 ^deBecause you have raged against me
and your complacency has come to my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth,
and ^dfI will turn you back on the way
by which you came.’
30 “And this shall be the sign for you: this year you shall eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from that. Then in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 31 And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah ^dgshall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. 32 ^dhFor out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. ^diThe zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

33 “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or ^djcast up a siege mound against it. 34 By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the Lord. 35 ^dkFor I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for ^dlthe sake of my servant David.”

36 ^dmAnd the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. 37 Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at ^dnNineveh. 38 And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword. And after they escaped into the land of ^doArarat, ^dpEsarhaddon his son reigned in his place.