Discovery BoxIsaiah 36:12--37:13 
Context36:12 But the chief adviser said, “My master did not send me to speak these words only to your master and to you. 1 His message is also for the men who sit on the wall, for they will eat their own excrement and drink their own urine along with you!” 2
36:13 The chief adviser then stood there and called out loudly in the Judahite dialect, 3 “Listen to the message of the great king, the king of Assyria. 36:14 This is what the king says: ‘Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you, for he is not able to rescue you! 36:15 Don’t let Hezekiah talk you into trusting in the Lord by saying, “The Lord will certainly rescue us; this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.” 36:16 Don’t listen to Hezekiah!’ For this is what the king of Assyria says, ‘Send me a token of your submission and surrender to me. 4 Then each of you may eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern, 36:17 until I come and take you to a land just like your own – a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 36:18 Hezekiah is misleading you when he says, “The Lord will rescue us.” Has any of the gods of the nations rescued his land from the power of the king of Assyria? 5 36:19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? 6 Indeed, did any gods rescue Samaria 7 from my power? 8 36:20 Who among all the gods of these lands have rescued their lands from my power? So how can the Lord rescue Jerusalem from my power?’” 9 36:21 They were silent and did not respond, for the king had ordered, “Don’t respond to him.”
36:22 Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn in grief 10 and reported to him what the chief adviser had said. 37:1 When King Hezekiah heard this, 11 he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and went to the Lord’s temple. 37:2 Eliakim the palace supervisor, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, 12 clothed in sackcloth, sent this message to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz: 37:3 “This is what Hezekiah says: 13 ‘This is a day of distress, insults, 14 and humiliation, 15 as when a baby is ready to leave the birth canal, but the mother lacks the strength to push it through. 16 37:4 Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all these things the chief adviser has spoken on behalf of his master, the king of Assyria, who sent him to taunt the living God. 17 When the Lord your God hears, perhaps he will punish him for the things he has said. 18 So pray for this remnant that remains.’” 19
37:5 When King Hezekiah’s servants came to Isaiah, 37:6 Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master this: ‘This is what the Lord says: “Don’t be afraid because of the things you have heard – these insults the king of Assyria’s servants have hurled against me. 20 37:7 Look, I will take control of his mind; 21 he will receive a report and return to his own land. I will cut him down 22 with a sword in his own land.”’”
37:8 When the chief adviser heard the king of Assyria had departed from Lachish, he left and went to Libnah, where the king was campaigning. 23 37:9 The king 24 heard that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia 25 was marching out to fight him. 26 He again sent 27 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. 28 Do you really think you will be rescued? 29 37:12 Were the nations whom my predecessors 30 destroyed – the nations of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden in Telassar – rescued by their gods? 31 37:13 Where are the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the kings of Lair, 32 Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”
1 tn Heb “To your master and to you did my master send me to speak these words?” The rhetorical question expects a negative answer.
2 tn Heb “[Is it] not [also] to the men…?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Yes, it is.”
sn The chief adviser alludes to the horrible reality of siege warfare, when the starving people in the besieged city would resort to eating and drinking anything to stay alive.
3 tn The Hebrew text includes “and he said.”
4 tn Heb “make with me a blessing and come out to me.”
5 tn Heb “Have the gods of the nations rescued, each his land, from the hand of the king of Assyria?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course not!”
6 tn The rhetorical questions in v. 34a suggest the answer, “Nowhere, they seem to have disappeared in the face of Assyria’s might.”
7 map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.
8 tn Heb “that they rescued Samaria from my hand?” But this gives the impression that the gods of Sepharvaim were responsible for protecting Samaria, which is obviously not the case. The implied subject of the plural verb “rescued” must be the generic “gods of the nations/lands” (vv. 18, 20).
9 tn Heb “that the Lord might rescue Jerusalem from my hand?” The logic runs as follows: Since no god has ever been able to withstand the Assyrian onslaught, how can the people of Jerusalem possibly think the Lord will rescue them?
10 tn Heb “with their clothes torn”; the words “in grief” have been supplied in the translation to indicate that this was done as a sign of grief and mourning.
11 tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.
12 tn Heb “elders of the priests” (so KJV, NAB, NASB); NCV “the older priests”; NRSV, TEV, CEV “the senior priests.”
13 tn In the Hebrew text this verse begins with “they said to him” (cf. NRSV).
14 tn Or “rebuke” (KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV), or “correction.”
15 tn Or “contempt”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “disgrace.”
16 tn Heb “when sons come to the cervical opening and there is no strength to give birth.”
17 tn Heb “all the words of the chief adviser whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to taunt the living God.”
18 tn Heb “and rebuke the words which the Lord your God hears.”
19 tn Heb “and lift up a prayer on behalf of the remnant that is found.”
20 tn Heb “by which the servants of the king of Assyria have insulted me.”
21 tn Heb “I will put in him a spirit.” The precise sense of רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”) is uncertain in this context. It may refer to a spiritual being who will take control of his mind (see 1 Kgs 22:19), or it could refer to a disposition of concern and fear. In either case the Lord’s sovereignty over the king is apparent.
22 tn Heb “cause him to fall” (so KJV, ASV, NAB), that is, “kill him.”
23 tn Heb “and the chief adviser returned and he found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he heard that he had departed from Lachish.”
24 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
25 tn Heb “Cush” (so NASB); NIV, NCV “the Cushite king of Egypt.”
26 tn Heb “heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, ‘He has come out to fight with you.’”
27 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.”
28 tn Heb “Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, annihilating them.”
29 tn Heb “and will you be rescued?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “No, of course not!”
30 tn Heb “fathers” (so KJV, NAB, NASB); NIV “forefathers”; NCV “ancestors.”
31 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?”
32 sn Lair was a city located in northeastern Babylon. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 235.
