2 Kings 19
1 On hearing this report, King Hezekiah tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and entered the house of the LORD.
And when king Ezechias heard these words, he rent his garments, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord.
2 And he sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz
And he sent Eliacim, who was over the house, and Sobna the scribe, and the ancients of the priests covered with sackcloths, to Isaias the prophet the son of Amos,
3 to tell him, “This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace; for children have come to the point of birth, but there is no strength to deliver them.
And they said to him: Thus saith Ezechias: This day is a day of tribulation, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: the children are come to the birth, and the woman in travail hath not strength.
4 Perhaps the LORD your God will hear all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to defy the living God, and He will rebuke him for the words that the LORD your God has heard. Therefore lift up a prayer for the remnant that still survives.”
It may be the Lord thy God will hear all the words of Rabsaces, whom the king of the Assyrians his master hath sent to reproach the living God, and to reprove with words, which the Lord thy God hath heard: and do thou offer prayer for the remnants that are found.
5 So the servants of King Hezekiah went to Isaiah,
So the servants of king Ezechias came to Isaias.
6 who replied, “Tell your master that this is what the LORD says: ‘Do not be afraid of the words you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me.
And Isaias said to them: Thus shall you say to your master: Thus saith the Lord: Be not afraid for the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of the Assyrians have blasphemed me.
7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land, where I will cause him to fall by the sword.’”
Behold I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a message, and shall return into his own country, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own country.
8 When the Rabshakeh heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.
And Rabsaces returned, and found the king of the Assyrians besieging Lobna: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachis.
9 Now Sennacherib had been warned about Tirhakah king of Cush: “Look, he has set out to fight against you.” So Sennacherib again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
And when he heard of Theraca king of Ethiopia: Behold, he is come out to fight with thee: and was going against him, he sent messengers to Ezechias, saying:
10 “Give this message to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you by saying that Jerusalem will not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
Thus shall you say to Ezechias king of Juda: Let not thy God deceive thee, in whom thou trustest: and do not say: Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hands of the king of the Assyrians.
11 Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other countries, devoting them to destruction. Will you then be spared?
Behold thou hast heard what the kings of the Assyrians have done to all countries, how they have laid them waste: and canst thou alone be delivered?
12 Did the gods of the nations destroyed by my fathers rescue those nations—the gods of Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph, and of the people of Eden in Telassar?
Have the gods of the nations delivered any of them, whom my fathers have destroyed, to wit, Gozan, and Haran, and Reseph, and the children of Eden that were in Thelassar?
13 Where are the kings of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”
Where is the king of Emath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Ana and of Ava?
14 So Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers, read it, and went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD.
And when Ezechias had received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and had read it, he went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord,
15 And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD: “O LORD, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth.
And he prayed in his sight, saying: O Lord God of Israel, who sitteth upon the cherubims, thou alone art the God of all the kings of the earth: thou madest heaven and earth:
16 Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see. Listen to the words that Sennacherib has sent to defy the living God.
Incline thy ear, and hear: open, O Lord, thy eyes, and see: and hear all the words of Sennacherib, who hath sent to upbraid unto us the living God.
17 Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste these nations and their lands.
Of a truth, O Lord, the kings of the Assyrians have destroyed nations, and the lands of them all.
18 They have cast their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods, but only wood and stone—the work of human hands.
And they have cast their gods into the fire: for they were not Rods, but the works of men’s hands of wood and stone, and they destroyed them.
19 And now, O LORD our God, please save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God.”
Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know, that thou art the Lord the only God.
20 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria.
And Isaias the son of Amos sent to Ezechias, saying: Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: I have heard the prayer thou hast made to me concerning Sennacherib king of the Assyrians.
21 This is the word that the LORD has spoken against him: ‘The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises you and mocks you; the Daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head behind you.
This is the word, that the Lord hath spoken of him: The virgin the daughter of Sion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn: the daughter of Jerusalem hath wagged her head behind thy back.
22 Whom have you taunted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel!
Whom hast thou reproached, and whom hast thou blasphemed? against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thy eyes on high? against the holy one of Israel.
23 Through your servants you have taunted the Lord, and you have said: “With my many chariots I have ascended to the heights of the mountains, to the remote peaks of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the finest of its cypresses. I have reached its farthest outposts, the densest of its forests.
By the hand of thy servants thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said: With the multitude of my chariots I have gone up to the height of the mountains, to the top of Libanus, and have cut down its tall cedars, and its choice fir trees. And I have entered into the furthest parts thereof, and the forest of its Carmel.
24 I have dug wells and drunk foreign waters. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.”
I have cut down, and I have drunk strange waters, and have dried up with the soles of my feet all the shut up waters.
25 Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it; in days of old I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, that you should crush fortified cities into piles of rubble.
Hast thou not heard what I have done from the beginning? from the days of old I have formed it, and now I have brought it to effect: that fenced cities of fighting men should be turned to heaps of ruin:
26 Therefore their inhabitants, devoid of power, are dismayed and ashamed. They are like plants in the field, tender green shoots, grass on the rooftops, scorched before it is grown.
And the inhabitants of them, were weak of hand, they trembled and were confounded, they became like the grass of the field, and the green herb on the tops of houses, which withered before it came to maturity.
27 But I know your sitting down, your going out and coming in, and your raging against Me.
Thy dwelling and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy way I knew before, and thy rage against me.
28 Because your rage and arrogance against Me have reached My ears, I will put My hook in your nose and My bit in your mouth; I will send you back the way you came.’
Thou hast been mad against me, and thy pride hath come up to my ears: therefore I will put a ring in thy nose, and a bit between thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way, by which thou camest.
29 And this will be a sign to you, O Hezekiah: This year you will eat what grows on its own, and in the second year what springs from the same. But in the third year you will sow and reap; you will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
And to thee, O Ezechias, this shall be a sign: Eat this year what thou shalt find: and in the second year, such things as spring of themselves: but in the third year sow and reap: plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
30 And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root below and bear fruit above.
And whatsoever shall be left of the house of Juda, shall take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
31 For a remnant will go forth from Jerusalem, and survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will accomplish this.
For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and that which shall be saved out of mount Sion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.
32 So this is what the LORD says about the king of Assyria: ‘He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow into it. He will not come before it with a shield or build up a siege ramp against it.
Wherefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of the Assyrians: He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow into it, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a trench about it.
33 He will go back the way he came, and he will not enter this city,’
By the way that he came, he shall return: and into this city he shall not come, saith the Lord.
34 ‘I will defend this city and save it for My own sake and for the sake of My servant David.’”
And I will protect this city, and will save it for my own sake, and for David my servant’s sake.
35 And that very night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!
And it came to pass that night, that an angel of the Lord came, and slew in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand. And when he arose early in the morning, he saw all the bodies of the dead.
36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.
And Sennacherib king of the Assyrians departing went away, and he returned and abode in Ninive.
37 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer put him to the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. And his son Esar-haddon reigned in his place.
And as he was worshipping in the temple of Nesroch his god, Adramelech and Sarasar his sons slew him with the sword, and they fled into the land of the Armenians, and Asarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.
