The Holy Bible

[32:9] You women who live an easy life, free from worries, listen to what I am saying.

[32:10] You may be satisfied now, but this time next year you will be in despair because there will be no grapes for you to gather.

[32:11] You have been living an easy life, free from worries; but now, tremble with fear! Strip off your clothes and tie rags around your waist.

[32:12] Beat your breasts in grief because the fertile fields and the vineyards have been destroyed,

[32:13] and thorn bushes and briers are growing on my people's land. Weep for all the houses where people were happy and for the city that was full of life.

[32:14] Even the palace will be abandoned and the capital city totally deserted. Homes and the forts that guarded them will be in ruins forever. Wild donkeys will roam there, and sheep will find pasture there.

[32:15] But once more God will send us his spirit. The wasteland will become fertile, and fields will produce rich crops.

[32:16] Everywhere in the land righteousness and justice will be done.

[32:17] Because everyone will do what is right, there will be peace and security forever.

[32:18] God's people will be free from worries, and their homes peaceful and safe.

[32:19] (But hail will fall on the forests, and the city will be torn down.)

[32:20] How happy everyone will be with plenty of water for the crops and safe pasture everywhere for the donkeys and cattle.

[33:1] Our enemies are doomed! They have robbed and betrayed, although no one has robbed them or betrayed them. But their time to rob and betray will end, and they themselves will become victims of robbery and treachery.

[33:2] Lord, have mercy on us. We have put our hope in you. Protect us day by day and save us in times of trouble.

[33:3] When you fight for us, nations run away from the noise of battle.

[33:4] Their belongings are pounced upon and taken as loot.

[33:5] How great the Lord is! He rules over everything. He will fill Jerusalem with justice and integrity

[33:6] and give stability to the nation. He always protects his people and gives them wisdom and knowledge. Their greatest treasure is their reverence for the Lord.

[33:7] The brave are calling for help. The ambassadors who tried to bring about peace are crying bitterly.

[33:8] The highways are so dangerous that no one travels on them. Treaties are broken and agreements are violated. No one is respected any more.

[33:9] The land lies idle and deserted. The forests of Lebanon have withered, the fertile valley of Sharon is like a desert, and in Bashan and on Mount Carmel the leaves are falling from the trees.

[33:10] The Lord says to the nations, “Now I will act. I will show how powerful I am.

[33:11] You make worthless plans and everything you do is useless. My spirit is like a fire that will destroy you.

[33:12] You will crumble like rocks burned to make lime, like thorns burned to ashes.

[33:13] Let everyone near and far hear what I have done and acknowledge my power.”

[33:14] The sinful people of Zion are trembling with fright. They say, “God's judgment is like a fire that burns forever. Can any of us survive a fire like that?”

[33:15] You can survive if you say and do what is right. Don't use your power to cheat the poor and don't accept bribes. Don't join with those who plan to commit murder or to do other evil things.

[33:16] Then you will be safe; you will be as secure as if in a strong fortress. You will have food to eat and water to drink.

[33:17] Once again you will see a king ruling in splendor over a land that stretches in all directions.

[33:18] Your old fears of foreign tax collectors and spies will be only a memory.

[33:19] You will no longer see any arrogant foreigners who speak a language that you can't understand.

[33:20] Look at Zion, the city where we celebrate our religious festivals. Look at Jerusalem! What a safe place it will be to live in! It will be like a tent that is never moved, whose pegs are never pulled up and whose ropes never break.

[33:21] The Lord will show us his glory. We will live beside broad rivers and streams, but hostile ships will not sail on them.

[33:24] No one who lives in our land will ever again complain of being sick, and all sins will be forgiven.

[34:1] Come, people of all nations! Gather around and listen. Let the whole earth and everyone living on it come here and listen.

[34:2] The Lord is angry with all the nations and all their armies. He has condemned them to destruction.

[34:3] Their corpses will not be buried, but will lie there rotting and stinking; and the mountains will be red with blood.

[34:4] The sun, moon, and stars will crumble to dust. The sky will disappear like a scroll being rolled up, and the stars will fall like leaves dropping from a vine or a fig tree.

[34:5] The Lord has prepared his sword in heaven, and now it will strike Edom, those people whom he has condemned to destruction.

[34:6] His sword will be covered with their blood and fat, like the blood and fat of lambs and goats that are sacrificed. The Lord will offer this sacrifice in the city of Bozrah; he will make this a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

[34:7] The people will fall like wild oxen and young bulls, and the earth will be red with blood and covered with fat.

[34:8] This is the time when the Lord will rescue Zion and take vengeance on her enemies.

[34:9] The rivers of Edom will turn into tar, and the soil will turn into sulfur. The whole country will burn like tar.

[34:10] It will burn day and night, and smoke will rise from it forever. The land will lie waste age after age, and no one will ever travel through it again.

[34:11] Owls and ravens will take over the land. The Lord will make it a barren waste again, as it was before the creation.

[34:12] There will be no king to rule the country, and the leaders will all be gone.

[34:13] Thorns and thistles will grow up in all the palaces and walled towns, and jackals and owls will live in them.

[34:14] Wild animals will roam there, and demons will call to each other. The night monster will come there looking for a place to rest.

[34:15] Owls will build their nests, lay eggs, hatch their young, and care for them there. Vultures will gather there, one after another.

[34:16] Search in the Lord's book of living creatures and read what it says. Not one of these creatures will be missing, and not one will be without its mate. The Lord has commanded it to be so; he himself will bring them together.

[34:17] It is the Lord who will divide the land among them and give each of them a share. They will live in the land age after age, and it will belong to them forever.

[35:1] The desert will rejoice, and flowers will bloom in the wastelands.

[35:2] The desert will sing and shout for joy; it will be as beautiful as the Lebanon Mountains and as fertile as the fields of Carmel and Sharon. Everyone will see the Lord's splendor, see his greatness and power.

[35:3] Give strength to hands that are tired and to knees that tremble with weakness.

[35:4] Tell everyone who is discouraged, “Be strong and don't be afraid! God is coming to your rescue, coming to punish your enemies.”

[35:5] The blind will be able to see, and the deaf will hear.

[35:6] The lame will leap and dance, and those who cannot speak will shout for joy. Streams of water will flow through the desert;

[35:7] the burning sand will become a lake, and dry land will be filled with springs. Where jackals used to live, marsh grass and reeds will grow.

[35:8] There will be a highway there, called “The Road of Holiness.” No sinner will ever travel that road; no fools will mislead those who follow it.

[35:9] No lions will be there; no fierce animals will pass that way. Those whom the Lord has rescued will travel home by that road.

[35:10] They will reach Jerusalem with gladness, singing and shouting for joy. They will be happy forever, forever free from sorrow and grief.

[36:1] In the fourteenth year that Hezekiah was king of Judah, Sennacherib, the emperor of Assyria, attacked the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

[36:2] Then he ordered his chief official to go from Lachish to Jerusalem with a large military force to demand that King Hezekiah surrender. The official occupied the road where the cloth makers work, by the ditch that brings water from the upper pool.

[36:3] Three Judeans came out to meet him: the official in charge of the palace, Eliakim son of Hilkiah; the court secretary, Shebna; and the official in charge of the records, Joah son of Asaph.

[36:4] The Assyrian official told them that the emperor wanted to know what made King Hezekiah so confident.

[36:5] He demanded, “Do you think that words can take the place of military skill and might? Who do you think will help you rebel against Assyria?

[36:6] You are expecting Egypt to help you, but that would be like using a reed as a walking stick—it would break and would jab your hand. That is what the king of Egypt is like when anyone relies on him.”

[36:7] The Assyrian official went on, “Or will you tell me that you are relying on the Lord your God? It was the Lord's shrines and altars that Hezekiah destroyed when he told the people of Judah and Jerusalem to worship at one altar only.

[36:8] I will make a bargain with you in the name of the emperor. I will give you two thousand horses if you can find that many riders.

[36:9] You are no match for even the lowest ranking Assyrian official, and yet you expect the Egyptians to send you chariots and horsemen.

[36:10] Do you think I have attacked your country and destroyed it without the Lord's help? The Lord himself told me to attack it and destroy it.”

[36:11] Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah told the official, “Speak Aramaic to us. We understand it. Don't speak Hebrew; all the people on the wall are listening.”

[36:12] He replied, “Do you think you and the king are the only ones the emperor sent me to say all these things to? No, I am also talking to the people who are sitting on the wall, who will have to eat their excrement and drink their urine, just as you will.”

[36:13] Then the official stood up and shouted in Hebrew, “Listen to what the emperor of Assyria is telling you.

[36:14] He warns you not to let Hezekiah deceive you. Hezekiah can't save you.

[36:15] And don't let him persuade you to rely on the Lord. Don't think that the Lord will save you and that he will stop our Assyrian army from capturing your city.

[36:16] Don't listen to Hezekiah! The emperor of Assyria commands you to come out of the city and surrender. You will all be allowed to eat grapes from your own vines and figs from your own trees, and to drink water from your own wells—

[36:17] until the emperor resettles you in a country much like your own, where there are vineyards to give wine and there is grain for making bread.

[36:18] Don't let Hezekiah fool you into thinking that the Lord will rescue you. Did the gods of any other nations save their countries from the emperor of Assyria?

[36:19] Where are they now, the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Did anyone save Samaria?

[36:20] When did any of the gods of all these countries ever save their country from our emperor? Then what makes you think the Lord can save Jerusalem?”

[36:21] The people kept quiet, just as King Hezekiah had told them to; they did not say a word.

[36:22] Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah tore their clothes in grief and went and reported to the king what the Assyrian official had said.

[37:1] As soon as King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes in grief, put on sackcloth, and went to the Temple of the Lord.

[37:2] He sent Eliakim, the official in charge of the palace, Shebna, the court secretary, and the senior priests to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. They also were wearing sackcloth.

[37:3] This is the message which he told them to give to Isaiah: “Today is a day of suffering; we are being punished and are in disgrace. We are like a woman who is ready to give birth, but is too weak to do it.

[37:4] The Assyrian emperor has sent his chief official to insult the living God. May the Lord your God hear these insults and punish those who spoke them. So pray to God for those of our people who survive.”

[37:5] When Isaiah received King Hezekiah's message,

[37:6] he sent back this answer: “The Lord tells you not to let the Assyrians frighten you by their claims that he cannot save you.

[37:7] The Lord will cause the emperor to hear a rumor that will make him go back to his own country, and the Lord will have him killed there.”

[37:8] The Assyrian official learned that the emperor had left Lachish and was fighting against the nearby city of Libnah; so he went there to consult him.

[37:9] Word reached the Assyrians that the Egyptian army, led by King Tirhakah of Ethiopia, was coming to attack them. When the emperor heard this, he sent a letter to King Hezekiah

[37:10] of Judah to tell him: “The god you are trusting in has told you that you will not fall into my hands, but don't let that deceive you.

[37:11] You have heard what an Assyrian emperor does to any country he decides to destroy. Do you think that you can escape?

[37:12] My ancestors destroyed the cities of Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph, and killed the people of Betheden who lived in Telassar, and none of their gods could save them.

[37:13] Where are the kings of the cities of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?”

[37:14] King Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went to the Temple, placed the letter there in the presence of the Lord,

[37:15] and prayed,

[37:16] “Almighty Lord, God of Israel, seated above the winged creatures, you alone are God, ruling all the kingdoms of the world. You created the earth and the sky.

[37:17] Now, Lord, hear us and look at what is happening to us. Listen to all the things that Sennacherib is saying to insult you, the living God.

[37:18] We all know, Lord, that the emperors of Assyria have destroyed many nations, made their lands desolate,

[37:19] and burned up their gods—which were no gods at all, only images of wood and stone made by human hands.

[37:20] Now, Lord our God, rescue us from the Assyrians, so that all the nations of the world will know that you alone are God.”

[37:21] Then Isaiah sent a message telling King Hezekiah that in answer to the king's prayer

[37:22] the Lord had said, “The city of Jerusalem laughs at you, Sennacherib, and makes fun of you.

[37:23] Whom do you think you have been insulting and ridiculing? You have been disrespectful to me, the holy God of Israel.

[37:24] You sent your servants to boast to me that with all your chariots you had conquered the highest mountains of Lebanon. You boasted that there you cut down the tallest cedars and the finest cypress trees, and that you reached the deepest parts of the forests.

[37:25] You boasted that you dug wells and drank water in foreign lands, and that the feet of your soldiers tramped the Nile River dry.

[37:26] “Have you never heard that I planned all this long ago? And now I have carried it out. I gave you the power to turn fortified cities into piles of rubble.

[37:27] The people who lived there were powerless; they were frightened and stunned. They were like grass in a field or weeds growing on a roof when the hot east wind blasts them.

[37:28] “But I know everything about you, what you do and where you go. I know how you rage against me.

[37:29] I have received the report of that rage and that pride of yours, and now I will put a hook through your nose and a bit in your mouth and will take you back by the same road you came.”

[37:30] Then Isaiah said to King Hezekiah, “Here is a sign of what will happen. This year and next you will have only wild grain to eat, but the following year you will be able to plant grain and harvest it, and plant vines and eat grapes.

[37:31] Those in Judah who survive will flourish like plants that send roots deep into the ground and produce fruit.

[37:32] There will be people in Jerusalem and on Mount Zion who will survive, because the Lord Almighty is determined to make this happen.

[37:33] “And this is what the Lord has said about the Assyrian emperor: ‘He will not enter this city or shoot a single arrow against it. No soldiers with shields will come near the city, and no siege mounds will be built around it.

[37:34] He will go back by the same road he came, without entering this city. I, the Lord, have spoken.

[37:35] I will defend this city and protect it, for the sake of my own honor and because of the promise I made to my servant David.’”

[37:36] An angel of the Lord went to the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 soldiers. At dawn the next day there they lay, all dead!

[37:37] Then the Assyrian emperor Sennacherib withdrew and returned to Nineveh.

[37:38] One day when he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, two of his sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, killed him with their swords and then escaped to the land of Ararat. Another of his sons, Esarhaddon, succeeded him as emperor.