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 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 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 Hezekiah, This day [is] a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy: for the children have 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.”
It may be the LORD thy God will hear all the words of Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God; and will reprove the words which the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up [thy] prayer for the remnant that are left.
5 So the servants of King Hezekiah went to Isaiah,
So 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 to them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith the LORD, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants 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 send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumor, and 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.
So Rab-shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he had 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 when he heard it said of Tirhakah king of Cush, Behold, he hath come out to fight against thee: he sent messengers again to 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 speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered 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 hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shalt thou 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 them which my fathers have destroyed; [as] Gozan and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden who [were] in Thelasar?
13 Where are the kings of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”
Where [is] the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivah?
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 received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into 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 Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said, O LORD God of Israel, who dwellest [between] the cherubim, thou art the God, [even] thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made 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.
LORD, bow down thy ear, and hear: open, LORD, thy eyes, and see: and hear the words of Sennacherib, who hath sent him to reproach the living God.
17 Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste these nations and their lands.
Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands,
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 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 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, I beseech thee, save thou us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou [art] the LORD God, [even] thou only.
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 Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, [That] which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have 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 concerning him; The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, [and] laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.
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 blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted [thy] voice, and lifted up thy eyes on high: [even] 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 reproached the LORD, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the hight of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down its tall cedar trees, [and] its choice fir trees: and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders, [and into] the forest of his 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 digged and drank strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers 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.
Hast thou not heard long ago [how] I have done it, [and] of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldst be to lay waste fortified cities [in] ruinous heaps.
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.
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 house-tops, and [as corn] blasted before it is grown up.
27 But I know your sitting down, your going out and coming in, and your raging against Me.
But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, 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.’
Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is 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 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] a sign to thee, Ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same; and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits of it.
30 And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root below and bear fruit above.
And the remnant that hath escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again 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 they that escape from mount Zion: 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.
Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.
33 He will go back the way he came, and he will not enter this city,’
By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD.
34 ‘I will defend this city and save it for My own sake and for the sake of My servant David.’”
For I will defend this city, to save it, for my own sake, and for my servant David'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 the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty five thousand: and when they 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.
So Sennacherib king of Assyria 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 worshiping 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 Armenia. And Esar-haddon his son reigned in his stead.
