Isaiah 37:11-15

37:11 Certainly you have heard how the kings of Assyria have annihilated all lands. ¹  Do you really think you will be rescued? ²  37:12 Were the nations whom my predecessors ³  destroyed – the nations of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden in Telassar – rescued by their gods? ⁴  37:13 Where are the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the kings of Lair, ⁵  Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”

37:14 Hezekiah took the letter ⁶  from the messengers and read it. ⁷  Then Hezekiah went up to the Lord’s temple and spread it out before the Lord. 37:15 Hezekiah prayed before the Lord:

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¹ tn Heb “Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, annihilating them.”

² tn Heb “and will you be rescued?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “No, of course not!”

³ tn Heb “fathers” (so KJV, NAB, NASB); NIV “forefathers”; NCV “ancestors.”

⁴ tn Heb “Did the gods of the nations whom my fathers destroyed rescue them – Gozan and Haran, and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who are in Telassar?”

⁵ sn Lair was a city located in northeastern Babylon. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 235.

⁶ tc The Hebrew text has the plural, “letters.” The final mem (ם) may be dittographic (note the initial mem on the form that immediately follows). Some Greek and Aramaic witnesses have the singular. If so, one still has to deal with the yod that is part of the plural ending. J. N. Oswalt refers to various commentators who have suggested ways to understand the plural form (Isaiah [NICOT], 1:652).

⁷ tn In the parallel text in 2 Kgs 19:14 the verb has the plural suffix, “them,” but this probably reflects a later harmonization to the preceding textual corruption (of “letter” to “letters”).