Isaiah 37:9-14

37:9 The king ¹  heard that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia ²  was marching out to fight him. ³  He again sent ⁴  messengers to Hezekiah, ordering them: 37:10 “Tell King Hezekiah of Judah this: ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust mislead you when he says, “Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.” 37:11 Certainly you have heard how the kings of Assyria have annihilated all lands. ⁵  Do you really think you will be rescued? ⁶  37:12 Were the nations whom my predecessors ⁷  destroyed – the nations of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden in Telassar – rescued by their gods? ⁸  37:13 Where are the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the kings of Lair, ⁹  Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”

37:14 Hezekiah took the letter ¹⁰  from the messengers and read it. ¹¹  Then Hezekiah went up to the Lord’s temple and spread it out before the Lord.

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¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “Cush” (so NASB); NIV, NCV “the Cushite king of Egypt.”

³ tn Heb “heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, ‘He has come out to fight with you.’”

⁴ tn The Hebrew text has, “and he heard and he sent,” but the parallel in 2 Kgs 19:9 has וַיָּשָׁב וַיִּשְׁלַח (vayyashav vayyishlakh, “and he returned and he sent”), i.e., “he again sent.”

⁵ tn Heb “Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, annihilating them.”

⁶ tn Heb “and will you be rescued?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “No, of course not!”

⁷ tn Heb “fathers” (so KJV, NAB, NASB); NIV “forefathers”; NCV “ancestors.”

⁸ 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?”

⁹ sn Lair was a city located in northeastern Babylon. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 235.

¹⁰ 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).

¹¹ 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”).