Immerse: Prophets - Flipbook - Page 133
37:37–38:13
I saiah
121
the next morning, they found corpses everywhere. Then King Sennach
erib of Assyria broke camp and returned to his own land. He went home
to his capital of Nineveh and stayed there.
One day while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his
sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with their swords. They then
escaped to the land of Ararat, and another son, Esarhaddon, became the
next king of Assyria.
About that time Hezekiah became deathly ill, and the prophet Isaiah son
of Amoz went to visit him. He gave the king this message: “This is what
the Lord says: ‘Set your affairs in order, for you are going to die. You will
not recover from this illness.’”
When Hezekiah heard this, he turned his face to the wall and prayed
to the Lord, “Remember, O Lord, how I have always been faithful to
you and have served you single-mindedly, always doing what pleases you.”
Then he broke down and wept bitterly.
Then this message came to Isaiah from the Lord: “Go back to Heze
kiah and tell him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your ancestor David,
says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will add fifteen years
to your life, and I will rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria.
Yes, I will defend this city.
“‘And this is the sign from the Lord to prove that he will do as he prom
ised: I will cause the sun’s shadow to move ten steps backward on the sun
dial of Ahaz!’” So the shadow on the sundial moved backward ten steps.
When King Hezekiah was well again, he wrote this poem:
I said, “In the prime of my life,
must I now enter the place of the dead?
Am I to be robbed of the rest of my years?”
I said, “Never again will I see the Lord God
while still in the land of the living.
Never again will I see my friends
or be with those who live in this world.
My life has been blown away
like a shepherd’s tent in a storm.
It has been cut short,
as when a weaver cuts cloth from a loom.
Suddenly, my life was over.
I waited patiently all night,
but I was torn apart as though by lions.
