2 Kings 19
1 On hearing this report, King Hezekiah tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and entered the house of the LORD.
And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, 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 Elyakim, who was superintendent over the house, and Shebnah the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.
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 unto him, Thus hath said Hezekiah, A day of trouble, and of rebuke, and derision is this day; for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.
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.”
Perhaps the Lord thy God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to blaspheme the living God; and who hath reproached with the words which the Lord thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up a prayer in behalf of the remnant that is still found here.
5 So the servants of King Hezekiah went to Isaiah,
And the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
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 Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus hath said the Lord, Be not afraid because of the words which thou hast heard, with which the boys of the king of Assyria 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 put an [other] spirit in him, that when he will hear a rumor, he shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
8 When the Rabshakeh heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.
And Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah; for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.
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 he heard it said of Thirhakah the king of Ethiopia, Behold, he is come out to fight with thee; and he again sent messengers unto Hezekiah, 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 ye say to Hezekiah the king of Judah, as followeth, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given up into the hand of the king of Assyria.
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 thyself hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, by destroying them utterly: and thou alone shouldst 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 which my fathers destroyed delivered them; as Gozan, and Charan, and Rezeph, and the children of 'Eden, who were in Thelassar?
13 Where are the kings of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”
Where is the king of Chamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvayim, of Hena', and 'Ivvah?
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 Hezekiah took the letters out of the hand of the messengers, and read them: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord, and spread them out 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 Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said, O Lord God of Israel, who dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the [true] God, thou alone, for all the kingdoms of the earth; for it is thou who hast made the heavens and the 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.
Bend down, O Lord, thy ear, and hear! open, O Lord, thy eyes, and see! and hear the words of Sennacherib, that which he hath sent to blaspheme the living God.
17 Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste these nations and their lands.
Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their land,
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 placed their gods into the fire; for they are no gods, but the work of man's hands, wood and stone: and these have they destroyed.
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.”
And now, O Lord our God, save us, I beseech thee, out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, thou alone.
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.
Then sent Isaiah the son of Amoz to Hezekiah, saying, Thus hath said the Lord the God of Israel, What thou hast prayed to me concerning Sennacherib the king of Assyria have I heard.
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 over him: She despiseth thee, she laugheth thee to scorn, the virgin daughter of Zion; behind thee shaketh her head the daughter of Jerusalem.
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 blasphemed, and [whom] hast thou scorned? and against whom hast thou raised 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 thy messengers thou hast blasphemed the Lord and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots am I indeed come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and I will cut down its tall cedars, the choice of its fir-trees: and I will enter into the lodgings on its summit, the forest of its fruitful soil.
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 dug and drunk strange waters, and I will dry up with the sole of my feet all the streams of besieged places.
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.
Hadst thou not heard that in distant ages I had prepared this? in the times of antiquity when I formed it? now have I brought it along, and it came to pass, to desolate into ruinous heaps fortified cities.
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 thus their inhabitants were short of power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the herbs of the field, and as the green grass; as the moss on the housetops, and as corn blasted before the ear appeareth.
27 But I know your sitting down, your going out and coming in, and your raging against Me.
But thy abiding and thy going out and thy coming in do I know, and thy raging 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.’
Because of thy raging against me and thy tumult that is come up into my ears, will I put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle between thy lips; and I will cause thee to turn back on 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 this shall be unto thee the sign, Ye shall eat this year what groweth of itself, and in the second year what springeth up after the same; and in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.
30 And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root below and bear fruit above.
And the remnant of the house of Judah that is escaped shall yet again strike 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 escapeth out of mount Zion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts will 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.
Therefore thus hath said the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, and he shall not shoot an arrow thereon, nor come before it with shield, nor cast up against it an embankment.
33 He will go back the way he came, and he will not enter this city,’
On the way by which he came, by the same shall he return, and into this city shall he 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 shield this city, to save it, for my own sake, and for the sake of David my servant.
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, on the same night, that an angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred eighty and five thousand men: and when people arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.
And Sennacherib the king of Assyria then departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.
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 it came to pass, as he was prostrating himself in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Essar-chaddon his son became king in his stead.
