37:1 希西家王聽見就撕裂衣服，披上麻布，進了耶和華的殿，
37:2 使家宰以利亞敬和書記舍伯那，並祭司中的長老，都披上麻布，去見亞摩斯的兒子先知以賽亞，
37:3 對他說：「希西家如此說：『今日是急難、責罰、凌辱的日子，就如婦人將要生產嬰孩，卻沒有力量生產。
37:4 或者耶和華─你的上帝聽見拉伯沙基的話，就是他主人亞述王打發他來辱罵永生上帝的話；耶和華─你的上帝聽見這話就發斥責。故此，求你為餘剩的民揚聲禱告。』」
37:5 希西家王的臣僕就去見以賽亞。
37:6 以賽亞對他們說：「要這樣對你們的主人說，耶和華如此說：『你聽見亞述王的僕人褻瀆我的話，不要懼怕。
37:7 我必驚動（原文是使靈進入）他的心；他要聽見風聲就歸回本地，我必使他在那裡倒在刀下。』」
37:8 拉伯沙基回去，正遇見亞述王攻打立拿；原來他早聽見亞述王拔營離開拉吉。
37:9 亞述王聽見人論古實王特哈加說：「他出來要與你爭戰。」亞述王一聽見，就打發使者去見希西家，吩咐他們說：
37:10 「你們對猶大王希西家如此說：『不要聽你所倚靠的上帝欺哄你說：耶路撒冷必不交在亞述王的手中。
37:11 你總聽說亞述諸王向列國所行的乃是盡行滅絕，難道你還能得救嗎？
37:12 我列祖所毀滅的，就是歌散、哈蘭、利色，和屬提‧拉撒的伊甸人；這些國的神何曾拯救這些國呢？
37:13 哈馬的王，亞珥拔的王，西法瓦音城的王，希拿和以瓦的王，都在哪裡呢？』」
37:14 希西家從使者手裡接過書信來，看完了，就上耶和華的殿，將書信在耶和華面前展開。
37:15 希西家向耶和華禱告說：
37:16 「坐在二基路伯上萬軍之耶和華─以色列的上帝啊，你─惟有你是天下萬國的上帝，你曾創造天地。
37:17 耶和華啊，求你側耳而聽；耶和華啊，求你睜眼而看，要聽西拿基立的一切話，他是打發使者來辱罵永生上帝的。
37:18 耶和華啊，亞述諸王果然使列國和列國之地變為荒涼，
37:19 將列國的神像都扔在火裡；因為他本不是神，乃是人手所造的，是木頭、石頭的，所以滅絕他。
37:20 耶和華─我們的上帝啊，現在求你救我們脫離亞述王的手，使天下萬國都知道唯有你是耶和華。」
37:21 亞摩斯的兒子以賽亞就打發人去見希西家，說：「耶和華─以色列的上帝如此說，你既然求我攻擊亞述王西拿基立，
37:22 所以耶和華論他這樣說：錫安的處女藐視你，嗤笑你；耶路撒冷的女子向你搖頭。
37:23 你辱罵誰，褻瀆誰？揚起聲來，高舉眼目攻擊誰呢？乃是攻擊以色列的聖者。
37:24 你藉你的臣僕辱罵主說：我率領許多戰車上山頂，到黎巴嫩極深之處；我要砍伐其中高大的香柏樹和佳美的松樹。我必上極高之處，進入肥田的樹林。
37:25 我已經挖井喝水；我必用腳掌踏乾埃及的一切河。
37:26 耶和華說：你豈沒有聽見我早先所做的、古時所立的嗎？現在藉你使堅固城荒廢，變為亂堆。
37:27 所以其中的居民力量甚小，驚惶羞愧。他們像野草，像青菜，如房頂上的草，又如田間未長成的禾稼。
37:28 你坐下，你出去，你進來，你向我發烈怒，我都知道。
37:29 因你向我發烈怒，又因你狂傲的話達到我耳中，我就要用鉤子鉤上你的鼻子，把嚼環放在你口裡，使你從原路轉回去。
37:30 「以色列人哪，我賜你們一個證據：你們今年要吃自生的，明年也要吃自長的，至於後年，你們要耕種收割，栽植葡萄園，吃其中的果子。
37:31 猶大家所逃脫餘剩的，仍要往下扎根，向上結果。
37:32 必有餘剩的民從耶路撒冷而出；必有逃脫的人從錫安山而來。萬軍之耶和華的熱心必成就這事。
37:33 「所以耶和華論亞述王如此說：他必不得來到這城，也不在這裡射箭，不得拿盾牌到城前，也不築壘攻城。
37:34 他從哪條路來，必從那條路回去，必不得來到這城。這是耶和華說的。
37:35 因我為自己的緣故，又為我僕人大衛的緣故，必保護拯救這城。」
37:36 耶和華的使者出去，在亞述營中殺了十八萬五千人。清早有人起來一看，都是死屍了。
37:37 亞述王西拿基立就拔營回去，住在尼尼微。
37:38 一日在他的神─尼斯洛廟裡叩拜，他兒子亞得米勒和沙利色用刀殺了他，就逃到亞拉臘地。他兒子以撒哈頓接續他作王。
When King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his
clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord. 2And he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the
palace, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, covered with
sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. 3They said to him,
“Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace;
children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. 4It
may be that the Lord your God heard the words of the
Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God,
and will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has
heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.”
5 When
the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, 6Isaiah said to them,
“Say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord: Do not be
afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the
king of Assyria have reviled me. 7I myself will put a spirit in him,
so that he shall hear a rumor, and return to his own land; I will cause him to
fall by the sword in his own land.’ ”
8 The
Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah; for
he had heard that the king had left Lachish. 9Now the king heard
concerning King Tirhakah of Ethiopia, “He has set out to fight against you.”
When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10“Thus
shall you speak to King Hezekiah of Judah: Do not let your God on whom you rely
deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the
king of Assyria. 11See, you have heard what the kings of Assyria
have done to all lands, destroying them utterly. Shall you be delivered? 12Have
the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my predecessors
destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? 13Where
is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim,
the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?”
14 Hezekiah
received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; then Hezekiah
went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the
Lord. 15And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying: 16“O Lord of
hosts, God of Israel, who are enthroned above the cherubim, you are God, you
alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. 17Incline
your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has
sent to mock the living God. 18Truly, O Lord,
the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, 19and
have hurled their gods into the fire, though they were no gods, but the work of
human hands—wood and stone—and so they were destroyed. 20So now,
O Lord our God, save us from his hand, so that all
the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.”
21 Then
Isaiah son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying: “Thus says the Lord,
the God of Israel: Because you have prayed to me concerning King Sennacherib of
Assyria, 22this is the word that the Lord has
spoken concerning him:
She despises you, she scorns you—
virgin daughter Zion;
she tosses her head—behind your back,
daughter Jerusalem.
23
“Whom have you mocked and reviled?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and haughtily lifted your eyes?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
24
By your servants you have mocked the Lord,
and you have said, ‘With my many chariots
I have gone up the heights of the mountains,
to the far recesses of Lebanon;
I felled its tallest cedars,
its choicest cypresses;
I came to its remotest height,
its densest forest.
25
I dug wells
and drank waters,
I dried up with the sole of my foot
all the streams of Egypt.’
26
“Have you not heard
that I determined it long ago?
I planned from days of old
what now I bring to pass,
that you should make fortified cities
crash into heaps of ruins,
27
while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,
are dismayed and confounded;
they have become like plants of the field
and like tender grass,
like grass on the housetops,
blighted before it is grown.
28
“I know your rising up and your sitting down,
your going out and coming in,
and your raging against me.
29
Because you have raged against me
and your arrogance has come to my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth;
I will turn you back on the way
by which you came.
30 “And
this shall be the sign for you: This year eat what grows of itself, and in the
second year what springs from that; then in the third year sow, reap, plant
vineyards, and eat their fruit. 31The surviving remnant of the house
of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward; 32for
from Jerusalem a remnant shall go out, and from Mount Zion a band of survivors.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
33 “Therefore
thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He
shall not come into this city, shoot an arrow there, come before it with a
shield, or cast up a siege ramp against it. 34By the way that he
came, by the same he shall return; he shall not come into this city, says the Lord. 35For I will defend this city to save it, for
my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”
36 Then
the angel of the Lord set out and struck down one hundred
eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians; when morning dawned, they
were all dead bodies. 37Then King Sennacherib of Assyria left, went
home, and lived at Nineveh. 38As he was worshiping in the house of
his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword,
and they escaped into the land of Ararat. His son Esar-haddon succeeded him.
***********
先知在此敘述了猶大國如何蒙上帝的救拔，脫離亞述的威脅。這對於猶大的百姓是多麼歡喜快樂的事啊！也再次讓我們體認到上帝是多麼愛祂的子民，願意為祂的子民出手拯救！
我以曾經以這個背景來套入『但那等候耶和華的必重新得力。他們必如鷹展翅上騰；他們奔跑卻不困倦，行走卻不疲乏』的講道，使聽眾明白上帝是最大且顧念我們的上帝！
是的，倚靠耶和華上帝，並定重新得力，使我們不斷感受到上帝的眷顧與復活的大能！
