Category: Isaiah

Woe to the Obstinate Nation

1 “Woe to the obstinate children,”

declares theLord,

“to those who carry out plans that are not mine,

forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit,

heaping sin upon sin;

2 who go down to Egypt

without consulting me;

who look for help to Pharaoh’s protection,

to Egypt’s shade for refuge.

3 But Pharaoh’s protection will be to your shame,

Egypt’s shade will bring you disgrace.

4 Though they have officials in Zoan

and their envoys have arrived in Hanes,

5 everyone will be put to shame

because of a people useless to them,

who bring neither help nor advantage,

but only shame and disgrace.”

6 A prophecy concerning the animals of the Negev:

Through a land of hardship and distress,

of lions and lionesses,

of adders and darting snakes,

the envoys carry their riches on donkeys’ backs,

their treasures on the humps of camels,

to that unprofitable nation,

7 to Egypt, whose help is utterly useless.

Therefore I call her

Rahab the Do-Nothing.

8 Go now, write it on a tablet for them,

inscribe it on a scroll,

that for the days to come

it may be an everlasting witness.

9 For these are rebellious people, deceitful children,

children unwilling to listen to theLord’s instruction.

10 They say to the seers,

“See no more visions!”

and to the prophets,

“Give us no more visions of what is right!

Tell us pleasant things,

prophesy illusions.

11 Leave this way,

get off this path,

and stop confronting us

with the Holy One of Israel!”

12 Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says:

“Because you have rejected this message,

relied on oppression

and depended on deceit,

13 this sin will become for you

like a high wall, cracked and bulging,

that collapses suddenly, in an instant.

14 It will break in pieces like pottery,

shattered so mercilessly

that among its pieces not a fragment will be found

for taking coals from a hearth

or scooping water out of a cistern.”

15 This is what the SovereignLord, the Holy One of Israel, says:

“In repentance and rest is your salvation,

in quietness and trust is your strength,

but you would have none of it.

16 You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’

Therefore you will flee!

You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’

Therefore your pursuers will be swift!

17 A thousand will flee

at the threat of one;

at the threat of five

you will all flee away,

till you are left

like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,

like a banner on a hill.”

18 Yet theLordlongs to be gracious to you;

therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.

For theLordis a God of justice.

Blessed are all who wait for him!

19 People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you.

20 Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them.

21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

22 Then you will desecrate your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, “Away with you!”

23 He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows.

24 The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat fodder and mash, spread out with fork and shovel.

25 In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill.

26 The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when theLordbinds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.

27 See, the Name of theLordcomes from afar,

with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke;

his lips are full of wrath,

and his tongue is a consuming fire.

28 His breath is like a rushing torrent,

rising up to the neck.

He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction;

he places in the jaws of the peoples

a bit that leads them astray.

29 And you will sing

as on the night you celebrate a holy festival;

your hearts will rejoice

as when people playing pipes go up

to the mountain of theLord,

to the Rock of Israel.

30 TheLordwill cause people to hear his majestic voice

and will make them see his arm coming down

with raging anger and consuming fire,

with cloudburst, thunderstorm and hail.

31 The voice of theLordwill shatter Assyria;

with his rod he will strike them down.

32 Every stroke theLordlays on them

with his punishing club

will be to the music of timbrels and harps,

as he fights them in battle with the blows of his arm.

33 Topheth has long been prepared;

it has been made ready for the king.

Its fire pit has been made deep and wide,

with an abundance of fire and wood;

the breath of theLord,

like a stream of burning sulfur,

sets it ablaze.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/3/32k/ISA/30-736bebc43067db0de4b3b3d27e4d02b9.mp3?version_id=111—

Woe to Those Who Rely on Egypt

1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help,

who rely on horses,

who trust in the multitude of their chariots

and in the great strength of their horsemen,

but do not look to the Holy One of Israel,

or seek help from theLord.

2 Yet he too is wise and can bring disaster;

he does not take back his words.

He will rise up against that wicked nation,

against those who help evildoers.

3 But the Egyptians are mere mortals and not God;

their horses are flesh and not spirit.

When theLordstretches out his hand,

those who help will stumble,

those who are helped will fall;

all will perish together.

4 This is what theLordsays to me:

“As a lion growls,

a great lion over its prey—

and though a whole band of shepherds

is called together against it,

it is not frightened by their shouts

or disturbed by their clamor—

so theLordAlmighty will come down

to do battle on Mount Zion and on its heights.

5 Like birds hovering overhead,

theLordAlmighty will shield Jerusalem;

he will shield it and deliver it,

he will ‘pass over’ it and will rescue it.”

6 Return, you Israelites, to the One you have so greatly revolted against.

7 For in that day every one of you will reject the idols of silver and gold your sinful hands have made.

8 “Assyria will fall by no human sword;

a sword, not of mortals, will devour them.

They will flee before the sword

and their young men will be put to forced labor.

9 Their stronghold will fall because of terror;

at the sight of the battle standard their commanders will panic,”

declares theLord,

whose fire is in Zion,

whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/3/32k/ISA/31-0b909a4e6ee6183b8d48d4100e9122f1.mp3?version_id=111—

The Kingdom of Righteousness

1 See, a king will reign in righteousness

and rulers will rule with justice.

2 Each one will be like a shelter from the wind

and a refuge from the storm,

like streams of water in the desert

and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.

3 Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed,

and the ears of those who hear will listen.

4 The fearful heart will know and understand,

and the stammering tongue will be fluent and clear.

5 No longer will the fool be called noble

nor the scoundrel be highly respected.

6 For fools speak folly,

their hearts are bent on evil:

They practice ungodliness

and spread error concerning theLord;

the hungry they leave empty

and from the thirsty they withhold water.

7 Scoundrels use wicked methods,

they make up evil schemes

to destroy the poor with lies,

even when the plea of the needy is just.

8 But the noble make noble plans,

and by noble deeds they stand.

The Women of Jerusalem

9 You women who are so complacent,

rise up and listen to me;

you daughters who feel secure,

hear what I have to say!

10 In little more than a year

you who feel secure will tremble;

the grape harvest will fail,

and the harvest of fruit will not come.

11 Tremble, you complacent women;

shudder, you daughters who feel secure!

Strip off your fine clothes

and wrap yourselves in rags.

12 Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields,

for the fruitful vines

13 and for the land of my people,

a land overgrown with thorns and briers—

yes, mourn for all houses of merriment

and for this city of revelry.

14 The fortress will be abandoned,

the noisy city deserted;

citadel and watchtower will become a wasteland forever,

the delight of donkeys, a pasture for flocks,

15 till the Spirit is poured on us from on high,

and the desert becomes a fertile field,

and the fertile field seems like a forest.

16 TheLord’s justice will dwell in the desert,

his righteousness live in the fertile field.

17 The fruit of that righteousness will be peace;

its effect will be quietness and confidence forever.

18 My people will live in peaceful dwelling places,

in secure homes,

in undisturbed places of rest.

19 Though hail flattens the forest

and the city is leveled completely,

20 how blessed you will be,

sowing your seed by every stream,

and letting your cattle and donkeys range free.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/3/32k/ISA/32-14b389af06f3dbc46735cc6ef2b1653e.mp3?version_id=111—

Distress and Help

1 Woe to you, destroyer,

you who have not been destroyed!

Woe to you, betrayer,

you who have not been betrayed!

When you stop destroying,

you will be destroyed;

when you stop betraying,

you will be betrayed.

2 Lord, be gracious to us;

we long for you.

Be our strength every morning,

our salvation in time of distress.

3 At the uproar of your army, the peoples flee;

when you rise up, the nations scatter.

4 Your plunder, O nations, is harvested as by young locusts;

like a swarm of locusts people pounce on it.

5 TheLordis exalted, for he dwells on high;

he will fill Zion with his justice and righteousness.

6 He will be the sure foundation for your times,

a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge;

the fear of theLordis the key to this treasure.

7 Look, their brave men cry aloud in the streets;

the envoys of peace weep bitterly.

8 The highways are deserted,

no travelers are on the roads.

The treaty is broken,

its witnessesare despised,

no one is respected.

9 The land dries up and wastes away,

Lebanon is ashamed and withers;

Sharon is like the Arabah,

and Bashan and Carmel drop their leaves.

10 “Now will I arise,” says theLord.

“Now will I be exalted;

now will I be lifted up.

11 You conceive chaff,

you give birth to straw;

your breath is a fire that consumes you.

12 The peoples will be burned to ashes;

like cut thornbushes they will be set ablaze.”

13 You who are far away, hear what I have done;

you who are near, acknowledge my power!

14 The sinners in Zion are terrified;

trembling grips the godless:

“Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire?

Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?”

15 Those who walk righteously

and speak what is right,

who reject gain from extortion

and keep their hands from accepting bribes,

who stop their ears against plots of murder

and shut their eyes against contemplating evil—

16 they are the ones who will dwell on the heights,

whose refuge will be the mountain fortress.

Their bread will be supplied,

and water will not fail them.

17 Your eyes will see the king in his beauty

and view a land that stretches afar.

18 In your thoughts you will ponder the former terror:

“Where is that chief officer?

Where is the one who took the revenue?

Where is the officer in charge of the towers?”

19 You will see those arrogant people no more,

people whose speech is obscure,

whose language is strange and incomprehensible.

20 Look on Zion, the city of our festivals;

your eyes will see Jerusalem,

a peaceful abode, a tent that will not be moved;

its stakes will never be pulled up,

nor any of its ropes broken.

21 There theLordwill be our Mighty One.

It will be like a place of broad rivers and streams.

No galley with oars will ride them,

no mighty ship will sail them.

22 For theLordis our judge,

theLordis our lawgiver,

theLordis our king;

it is he who will save us.

23 Your rigging hangs loose:

The mast is not held secure,

the sail is not spread.

Then an abundance of spoils will be divided

and even the lame will carry off plunder.

24 No one living in Zion will say, “I am ill”;

and the sins of those who dwell there will be forgiven.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/3/32k/ISA/33-2f462f59c69b199d8e606281b468b1c5.mp3?version_id=111—

Judgment Against the Nations

1 Come near, you nations, and listen;

pay attention, you peoples!

Let the earth hear, and all that is in it,

the world, and all that comes out of it!

2 TheLordis angry with all nations;

his wrath is on all their armies.

He will totally destroythem,

he will give them over to slaughter.

3 Their slain will be thrown out,

their dead bodies will stink;

the mountains will be soaked with their blood.

4 All the stars in the sky will be dissolved

and the heavens rolled up like a scroll;

all the starry host will fall

like withered leaves from the vine,

like shriveled figs from the fig tree.

5 My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens;

see, it descends in judgment on Edom,

the people I have totally destroyed.

6 The sword of theLordis bathed in blood,

it is covered with fat—

the blood of lambs and goats,

fat from the kidneys of rams.

For theLordhas a sacrifice in Bozrah

and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

7 And the wild oxen will fall with them,

the bull calves and the great bulls.

Their land will be drenched with blood,

and the dust will be soaked with fat.

8 For theLordhas a day of vengeance,

a year of retribution, to uphold Zion’s cause.

9 Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch,

her dust into burning sulfur;

her land will become blazing pitch!

10 It will not be quenched night or day;

its smoke will rise forever.

From generation to generation it will lie desolate;

no one will ever pass through it again.

11 The desert owland screech owlwill possess it;

the great owland the raven will nest there.

God will stretch out over Edom

the measuring line of chaos

and the plumb line of desolation.

12 Her nobles will have nothing there to be called a kingdom,

all her princes will vanish away.

13 Thorns will overrun her citadels,

nettles and brambles her strongholds.

She will become a haunt for jackals,

a home for owls.

14 Desert creatures will meet with hyenas,

and wild goats will bleat to each other;

there the night creatures will also lie down

and find for themselves places of rest.

15 The owl will nest there and lay eggs,

she will hatch them, and care for her young

under the shadow of her wings;

there also the falcons will gather,

each with its mate.

16 Look in the scroll of theLordand read:

None of these will be missing,

not one will lack her mate.

For it is his mouth that has given the order,

and his Spirit will gather them together.

17 He allots their portions;

his hand distributes them by measure.

They will possess it forever

and dwell there from generation to generation.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/3/32k/ISA/34-83cf92d927272c7e21ace2a969156b17.mp3?version_id=111—

Joy of the Redeemed

1 The desert and the parched land will be glad;

the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.

Like the crocus,

2 it will burst into bloom;

it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.

The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,

the splendor of Carmel and Sharon;

they will see the glory of theLord,

the splendor of our God.

3 Strengthen the feeble hands,

steady the knees that give way;

4 say to those with fearful hearts,

“Be strong, do not fear;

your God will come,

he will come with vengeance;

with divine retribution

he will come to save you.”

5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened

and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

6 Then will the lame leap like a deer,

and the mute tongue shout for joy.

Water will gush forth in the wilderness

and streams in the desert.

7 The burning sand will become a pool,

the thirsty ground bubbling springs.

In the haunts where jackals once lay,

grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.

8 And a highway will be there;

it will be called the Way of Holiness;

it will be for those who walk on that Way.

The unclean will not journey on it;

wicked fools will not go about on it.

9 No lion will be there,

nor any ravenous beast;

they will not be found there.

But only the redeemed will walk there,

10 and those theLordhas rescued will return.

They will enter Zion with singing;

everlasting joy will crown their heads.

Gladness and joy will overtake them,

and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/3/32k/ISA/35-7c67e773ca9262b6a020a4fa14de3e7c.mp3?version_id=111—

Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem

1 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

2 Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. When the commander stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field,

3 Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to him.

4 The field commander said to them, “Tell Hezekiah:

“ ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours?

5 You say you have counsel and might for war—but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me?

6 Look, I know you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him.

7 But if you say to me, “We are depending on theLordour God”—isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship before this altar”?

8 “ ‘Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them!

9 How then can you repulse one officer of the least of my master’s officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

10 Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without theLord? TheLordhimself told me to march against this country and destroy it.’ ”

11 Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.”

12 But the commander replied, “Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the people sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?”

13 Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!

14 This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you!

15 Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in theLordwhen he says, ‘TheLordwill surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’

16 “Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your own cistern,

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

18 “Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘TheLordwill deliver us.’ Have the gods of any nations ever delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria?

19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand?

20 Who of all the gods of these countries have been able to save their lands from me? How then can theLorddeliver Jerusalem from my hand?”

21 But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.”

22 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn, and told him what the field commander had said.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/3/32k/ISA/36-caf2ed3f13b3d14b4524c497ca08337e.mp3?version_id=111—

Jerusalem’s Deliverance Foretold

1 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of theLord.

2 He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.

3 They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment of birth and there is no strength to deliver them.

4 It may be that theLordyour God will hear the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the living God, and that he will rebuke him for the words theLordyour God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant that still survives.”

5 When King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah,

6 Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘This is what theLordsays: Do not be afraid of what you have heard—those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

7 Listen! When he hears a certain report, I will make him want to return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.’ ”

8 When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.

9 Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the king of Cush,was marching out to fight against him. When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word:

10 “Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.’

11 Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered?

12 Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my predecessors deliver them—the gods of Gozan, Harran, Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar?

13 Where is the king of Hamath or the king of Arpad? Where are the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah?”

Hezekiah’s Prayer

14 Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of theLordand spread it out before theLord.

15 And Hezekiah prayed to theLord:

16 “LordAlmighty, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.

17 Give ear,Lord, and hear; open your eyes,Lord, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.

18 “It is true,Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands.

19 They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands.

20 Now,Lordour God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you,Lord, are the only God.”

Sennacherib’s Fall

21 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what theLord, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria,

22 this is the word theLordhas spoken against him:

“Virgin Daughter Zion

despises and mocks you.

Daughter Jerusalem

tosses her head as you flee.

23 Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed?

Against whom have you raised your voice

and lifted your eyes in pride?

Against the Holy One of Israel!

24 By your messengers

you have ridiculed the Lord.

And you have said,

‘With my many chariots

I have ascended the heights of the mountains,

the utmost heights of Lebanon.

I have cut down its tallest cedars,

the choicest of its junipers.

I have reached its remotest heights,

the finest of its forests.

25 I have dug wells in foreign lands

and drunk the water there.

With the soles of my feet

I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.’

26 “Have you not heard?

Long ago I ordained it.

In days of old I planned it;

now I have brought it to pass,

that you have turned fortified cities

into piles of stone.

27 Their people, drained of power,

are dismayed and put to shame.

They are like plants in the field,

like tender green shoots,

like grass sprouting on the roof,

scorchedbefore it grows up.

28 “But I know where you are

and when you come and go

and how you rage against me.

29 Because you rage against me

and because your insolence has reached my ears,

I will put my hook in your nose

and my bit in your mouth,

and I will make you return

by the way you came.

30 “This will be the sign for you, Hezekiah:

“This year you will eat what grows by itself,

and the second year what springs from that.

But in the third year sow and reap,

plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

31 Once more a remnant of the kingdom of Judah

will take root below and bear fruit above.

32 For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant,

and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.

The zeal of theLordAlmighty

will accomplish this.

33 “Therefore this is what theLordsays concerning the king of Assyria:

“He will not enter this city

or shoot an arrow here.

He will not come before it with shield

or build a siege ramp against it.

34 By the way that he came he will return;

he will not enter this city,”

declares theLord.

35 “I will defend this city and save it,

for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!”

36 Then the angel of theLordwent out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies!

37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.

38 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer killed him with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/3/32k/ISA/37-563d0252bdd2bb18c8e169df08acb43e.mp3?version_id=111—

Hezekiah’s Illness

1 In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what theLordsays: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.”

2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to theLord,

3 “Remember,Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

4 Then the word of theLordcame to Isaiah:

5 “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what theLord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life.

6 And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.

7 “ ‘This is theLord’s sign to you that theLordwill do what he has promised:

8 I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.’ ” So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down.

9 A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:

10 I said, “In the prime of my life

must I go through the gates of death

and be robbed of the rest of my years?”

11 I said, “I will not again see theLordhimself

in the land of the living;

no longer will I look on my fellow man,

or be with those who now dwell in this world.

12 Like a shepherd’s tent my house

has been pulled down and taken from me.

Like a weaver I have rolled up my life,

and he has cut me off from the loom;

day and night you made an end of me.

13 I waited patiently till dawn,

but like a lion he broke all my bones;

day and night you made an end of me.

14 I cried like a swift or thrush,

I moaned like a mourning dove.

My eyes grew weak as I looked to the heavens.

I am being threatened; Lord, come to my aid!”

15 But what can I say?

He has spoken to me, and he himself has done this.

I will walk humbly all my years

because of this anguish of my soul.

16 Lord, by such things people live;

and my spirit finds life in them too.

You restored me to health

and let me live.

17 Surely it was for my benefit

that I suffered such anguish.

In your love you kept me

from the pit of destruction;

you have put all my sins

behind your back.

18 For the grave cannot praise you,

death cannot sing your praise;

those who go down to the pit

cannot hope for your faithfulness.

19 The living, the living—they praise you,

as I am doing today;

parents tell their children

about your faithfulness.

20 TheLordwill save me,

and we will sing with stringed instruments

all the days of our lives

in the temple of theLord.

21 Isaiah had said, “Prepare a poultice of figs and apply it to the boil, and he will recover.”

22 Hezekiah had asked, “What will be the sign that I will go up to the temple of theLord?”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/3/32k/ISA/38-f85c4c39f9bc6359ee92c906cc5bb2c4.mp3?version_id=111—

Envoys From Babylon

1 At that time Marduk-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of his illness and recovery.

2 Hezekiah received the envoys gladly and showed them what was in his storehouses—the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine olive oil—his entire armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.

3 Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked, “What did those men say, and where did they come from?”

“From a distant land,” Hezekiah replied. “They came to me from Babylon.”

4 The prophet asked, “What did they see in your palace?”

“They saw everything in my palace,” Hezekiah said. “There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.”

5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of theLordAlmighty:

6 The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says theLord.

7 And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

8 “The word of theLordyou have spoken is good,” Hezekiah replied. For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my lifetime.”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/3/32k/ISA/39-142aa89d9975d648a78236e60e883c39.mp3?version_id=111—