The King Asks Isaiah's Advice
(Isaiah 37.1-7)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. 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. 3 This is the message which he told them to give 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. 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.”
5 When Isaiah received King Hezekiah's message, 6 he sent back this answer: “The Lord tells you not to let the Assyrians frighten you with their claims that he cannot save you. 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.”
The Assyrians Send Another Threat
(Isaiah 37.8-20)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. 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 of Judah 10 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. 11 You have heard what an Assyrian emperor does to any country he decides to destroy. Do you think that you can escape? 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. 13 Where are the kings of the cities of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?”
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, 15 and prayed, “O Lord, the God of Israel, seated on your throne above the winged creatures, you alone are God, ruling all the kingdoms of the world. You created the earth and the sky. 16 Now, Lord, look at what is happening to us. Listen to all the things that Sennacherib is saying to insult you, the living God. 17 We all know, Lord, that the emperors of Assyria have destroyed many nations, made their lands desolate, 18 and burned up their gods—which were no gods at all, only images of wood and stone made by human hands. 19 Now, Lord our God, rescue us from the Assyrians, so that all the nations of the world will know that only you, O Lord, are God.”
Isaiah's Message to the King
(Isaiah 37.21-38)20 Then Isaiah sent a message telling King Hezekiah that in answer to the king's prayer 21 the Lord had said, “The city of Jerusalem laughs at you, Sennacherib, and makes fun of you. 22 Whom do you think you have been insulting and ridiculing? You have been disrespectful to me, the holy God of Israel. 23 You sent your messengers 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. 24 You boasted that you dug wells and drank water in foreign lands and that the feet of your soldiers tramped the Nile River dry.
25 “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. 26 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.
27 “But I know everything about you, what you do and where you go. I know how you rage against me. 28 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 take you back by the same road you came.”
29 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 your grain and harvest it, and plant vines and eat grapes. 30 Those in Judah who survive will flourish like plants that send roots deep into the ground and produce fruit. 31 There will be people in Jerusalem and on Mount Zion who will survive, because the Lord is determined to make this happen.
32 “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. 33 He will go back by the same road he came, without entering this city. I, the Lord, have spoken. 34 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.’”
35 That night 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! 36 Then the Assyrian emperor Sennacherib withdrew and returned to Nineveh. 37 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.
Omukwaniilwa ta pula oondunge kuJesaja
(Jes. 37:1-7)1 Hiskia sho u uvu ehokololo lyawo, okwa tuula oonguwo dhe moluhodhi e ta zala ehahi e ta yi kotempeli yOmuwa. 2 Okwa tumu elenga lyomuuwa Eliakim, amushangampangu Shebna naayambi aakuluntu komuhunganeki Jesaja yaAmos. Oya li ya zala omahahi. 3 Okwe ya tumu kuJesaja nelaka tali ti: “Esiku lyonena olyomalwa, olyegeelo nolyeshundulo. Otwa fa omukiintu ta thetwa, ihe ita vulu okupulumutha. 4 Omupangeli gwaAssur okwa tumu elenga lye ekuluntu okusheka Kalunga omunamwenyo. Omuwa, Kalunga koye, na uve omasheko ngaka nokugeela ngoka e ga popi. Galikana Kalunga omolwaamboka yomaantu yetu ya hupa ko.”
5 Jesaja sho u uvu elaka lyomukwaniilwa Hiskia, 6 okwa yamukula ta ti: “Omuwa ota ti: ‘Ino tila oohapu ndhoka dhuumatyona womupangeli gwaAssur we dhi uvu tadhi sheke ndje! 7 Otandi tumine omupangeli onkundana ndjoka tayi mu galukithile koshilongo she mwene, nankoka tandi ke mu dhipagithila.’ ”
Aayassur taa homona ishewe
(Jes. 37:8-20)8 Elenga lyokuAssur olya koneke kutya omupangeli a zi mo muLakish nokwa li ta kondjitha oshilando shopopepi Libna; onkee a yi kuye. 9 Onkundana ya adha Aayassur, oya ti kutya etangakwiita lyAayegipiti mewiliko lyomukwaniilwa Tirhaka gwaSudan oli li mondjila, li ya homone. Omupangeli sho e shi uvu, okwa tumu aatumwa komukwaniilwa Hiskia, 10 ye mu lombwele ngeyi: “Kalunga ngoka we mu inekela, okwe ku lombwele kutya ito ka ya miikaha yandje, ihe shika inashi ku tula muugoya. 11 Owa kundana shoka omupangeli gwaAssur ta ningile iilongo ayihe mbyoka a tokola e yi hanagule po. Oto dhiladhila kutya oto ka hunuka? 12 Ootatekulu oya hanagula po iilando Gosan, Haran naRezef noya dhipaga aantu yaBeteden mboka ya kala muTelassar, ko kakwa li nando okalunga kamwe ta vulu oku ya hupitha. 13 Aakwaniilwa yomiilando Hamat, Arpad, Sefarvaim, Hena naIvva oye li peni?”
14 Omukwaniilwa Hiskia okwa taamba ontumwafo miikaha yaatumwa e te yi lesha. Nena okwa yi kotempeli e ta aneke ontumwafo koshipala shOmuwa 15 e ta galikana ta ti: “Omuwa, Kalunga kaIsrael, ngoka wa kuutumba koshipangelapundi shoye kombanda yaakerubi, ongoye awike Kalunga ngoka to lele iilongo ayihe yomuuyuni. Ongoye wa shiti egulu nevi wo. 16 Ngashingeyi, Omuwa, tala, nkene tatu ningwa. Pulakena oohapu adhihe dhaSennakerib, nkene te ku sheke, ngoye Kalunga omunamwenyo. 17 Omuwa, tse atuhe otwa tseya kutya aapangeli yaAssur oya hanagula po iigwana oyindji e taa ningi omavi gayo omaputu. 18 Oya lungunitha po ookalunga yawo mboka kaya li ookalunga nando, oyo iiyelekela ayike ya hongwa kaantu miiti nomomamanya. 19 Ngashingeyi, Omuwa, Kalunga ketu, tu hupitha miikaha yAayassur, opo iigwana ayihe yomuuyuni yi tseye kutya ongoye awike Omuwa Kalunga.”
Elaka lyaJesaja komukwaniilwa
(Jes. 37:21-38)20 Nena Jesaja okwa tumu komukwaniilwa Hiskia elaka tali mu tseyithile eyamukulo kegalikano lye. 21 Omuwa okwa ti: “Sennakerib, oshilando Jerusalem otashi ku yolo e tashi ku dhini. 22 Olye ngoka andola we mu sheke noku mu popya nayi? Ongoye owa dhini ndje, ngame Kalunga kaIsrael omuyapuki. 23 Owa tumu aatumwa yoye, u inenepekele ndje kutya ngoye nomatembakwiita goye agehe wa sindi oondundu oondeendeka dhaLibanon. Owi itanga to ti, owa komangele omiti omisedeli omile nomiti omikiperesi dho opala nowa thiki nomomaha gomuuleeleka momakuti. 24 Owi inomo to ti, owa hupu omithima e to nu omeya momavi gokiilongo noompadhi dhaakwiita yoye odha lyatagula po omulonga Niili e tagu pwine.
25 “Ino shi uva nani kutya shika ongame nde shi dhiladhila nalenale? Ngashingeyi onde shi gwanitha. Onde ku pe oonkondo, u kumune po iilandohote, yi ninge omakulukuma. 26 Aantu mboka ya kala mo oya tyololoka; oya li ya haluka noya kunkwa. Oya li ya fa omwiidhi melundu nenge iigwanga tayi mene kombanda yondunda, uuna ombepo ompyu yokuuzilo tayi yi pepele.
27 “Ihe ngame onde ku tseya aguhe, shoka to ningi naankoka to yi. Onda tseya, nkene wa pindjala okukondjitha ndje. 28 Onda taamba etseyitho lyepindjalo lyoye nomwiityo gwoye, nongashingeyi otandi tula ondjolo momayulu goye noshitomo mokana koye e tandi ku shunitha nondjila ndjoka we ya nayo.”
29 Nena Jesaja okwa ti komukwaniilwa Hiskia: “Endhindhiliko lyashika tashi ka ningwa, olyo ndika. Nuumvo nomumvo tagu ya omu na okulya oshinkumbwe ashike, ihe omumvo tagu ka landula ko otamu ka vula okukuna nokuteya iilya yeni, notamu ka tsika omiviinu e tamu li omandjembele. 30 Oomboka taa hupile muJuda, otaa ka tsapuka ya fa iimeno tayi fala omidhi dhayo muule mevi e tayi imi iiyimati.” 31 MuJerusalem otamu ka kala aantu nokondundu Sion oomboka ya hupu ko, oshoka Omuwa oye ta ningitha ayihe mbika.
32 Omuwa okwa popi omupangeli gwaAssur ta ti: “Ite ya mo, a hite meni lyoshilando shika nenge a umbile mo nando oshikuti shimwe molugodhi. Kape na omukwiita e na ehuuyanza ta vulu okuya popepi noshilando, noshilando itashi tungilwa omutuni gwekondekela. 33 Ota ka shuna nondjila ndjoka e ya nayo ye ite ya meni lyoshilando shika. Ongame, Omuwa, nde dhi tya. 34 Otandi popile oshilando shika e tandi shi gamene omolwesimano lyandje mwene nomolweuvaneko nde li uvanekele omuntu gwandje David.”
35 Uusiku mbwiyaka omuyengeli gwOmuwa okwa yi kontanda yAayassur e ta dhipagele ko aakwiita 185 000. Sho kwa shi, oya adhika ya lala ya sa ayehe. 36 Nena omupangeli gwaAssur Sennakerib okwa zi po e ta shuna kuNinive. 37 Esiku limwe, sho a li ta saagele motempeli yoshikalunga she Nisrok, yaali yomoyanamati, Adrammelek naSharezer, oye mu dhipaga nomagongamwele e taa fadhuka po taa yi koshilongo Ararat. Gumwe gwomoyanamati Asarhaddon okwe mu landula muukwaniilwa.
