< 2 Kings 19 >
1 And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of Jehovah.
2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests (covered with sackcloth) to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.
3 And they said to him, Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy, for the sons have come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring forth.
4 It may be that Jehovah thy God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Jehovah thy God has heard. Therefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left.
5 So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
6 And Isaiah said to them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus says Jehovah, Do not be afraid of the words that thou have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he shall hear news, and shall return to his own land. And I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
8 So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.
9 And when he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he comes out to fight against thee, he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying,
10 Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Do not let thy God in whom thou trust deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
11 Behold, thou have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly. And shall thou be delivered?
12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the sons of Eden that were in Telassar?
13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?
14 And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it. And Hezekiah went up to the house of Jehovah, and spread it before Jehovah.
15 And Hezekiah prayed before Jehovah, and said, O Jehovah, the God of Israel, who sits above the cherubim, thou are the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. Thou have made heaven and earth.
16 Incline thine ear, O Jehovah, and hear. Open thine eyes, O Jehovah, and see. And hear the words of Sennacherib, with which he has sent for him to defy the living God.
17 Of a truth, Jehovah, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands,
18 and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they have destroyed them.
19 Now therefore, O Jehovah our God, save thou us, I beseech thee, out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou Jehovah are God alone.
20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus says Jehovah, the God of Israel, Whereas thou have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard.
21 This is the word that Jehovah has spoken concerning him: The virgin daughter of Zion has despised thee and laughed thee to scorn. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at thee.
22 Whom have thou defied and blasphemed? And against whom have thou exalted thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on high? Even against the Holy One of Israel.
23 By thy messengers thou have defied the Lord, and have said, With the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon. And I will cut down the tall cedars of it, and the choice fir trees of it. And I will enter into his farthest lodging-place, the forest of his fruitful field.
24 I have dug and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet I will dry up all the rivers of Egypt.
25 Have thou not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it of ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that thou should be to lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps.
26 Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded. They were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as grain blasted before it is grown up.
27 But I know thy sitting down, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy raging against me.
28 Because of thy raging against me, and because thine arrogance has come up into my ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou came.
29 And this shall be the sign to thee: Ye shall eat this year that which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs of the same. And in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of it.
30 And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
31 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and out of mount Zion those who shall escape. The zeal of Jehovah shall perform this.
32 Therefore thus says Jehovah concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither shall he come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it.
33 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and he shall not come to this city, says Jehovah.
34 For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake, and for my servant David's sake.
35 And it came to pass that night, that the agent of Jehovah went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred eighty-five thousand. And when men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.
37 And it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer smote him with the sword, and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esar-haddon his son reigned in his stead.
