Ii Regum 19
1 Quae cum audisset Ezechias rex, scidit vestimenta sua, et opertus est sacco, ingressusque est domum Domini.
When King Hezekiah heard what they reported, he tore his clothes and put on clothes made of rough cloth [because he was very distressed]. Then he went to the temple [to ask God what to do].
2 Et misit Eliacim praepositum domus, et Sobnam scribam, et senes de sacerdotibus opertos saccis, ad Isaiam prophetam filium Amos.
He summoned Eliakim and Shebna and the (older/most important) priests, who were also wearing clothes made of rough sackcloth, and told them to talk to me.
3 Qui dixerunt: Haec dicit Ezechias: Dies tribulationis, et increpationis, et blasphemiae dies iste: venerunt filii usque ad partum, et vires non habet parturiens.
He said to them, “Tell this to Isaiah: ‘King Hezekiah says that we are having great distress/trouble now. [Other nations are causing] us to be insulted and disgraced. We are like [MET] a woman who is about to give birth to a child, but she does not have the strength that she needs to do it.
4 Si forte audiat Dominus Deus tuus universa verba Rabsacis, quem misit rex Assyriorum dominus suus, ut exprobraret Deum viventem, et argueret verbis, quae audivit Dominus Deus tuus: et fac orationem pro reliquiis, quae repertae sunt.
Perhaps Yahweh your God has heard everything that the official from Assyria said. Perhaps he knows that his boss/master, the king of Assyria, sent him to insult the all-powerful God, and that Yahweh will rebuke/punish him for what he said.’ And he requests that you pray for the few of us who are still alive [here in Jerusalem].”
5 Venerunt ergo servi regis Ezechiae ad Isaiam.
When the messengers from Hezekiah came to Isaiah,
6 Dixitque eis Isaias: Haec dicetis domino vestro: Haec dicit Dominus: Noli timere a facie sermonum, quos audisti, quibus blasphemaverunt pueri regis Assyriorum me.
Isaiah said to them, “[Go back to] your boss/master [and] tell him, ‘This is what Yahweh says: Those messengers from the king of Assyria have said evil things about me. But you should not be disturbed because of what they said.
7 Ecce, ego immittam ei spiritum, et audiet nuncium, et revertetur in terram suam, et deiiciam eum gladio in terra sua.
Listen to this: I will cause Sennacherib to hear a rumor that will worry him, [that a foreign army is about to attack his country]. So he will return to his own country, and there I will cause him to be assassinated by [men using] swords.’”
8 Reversus est ergo Rabsaces, et invenit regem Assyriorum expugnantem Lobnam: Audierat enim quod recessisset de Lachis.
The official from Assyria found out that the King of Assyria [and his army] had left Lachish [city], and that they were attacking Libnah, [which is a nearby city]. So the official went there [to report to him what had happened in Jerusalem].
9 Cumque audisset de Tharaca rege Aethiopiae, dicentes: Ecce, egressus est ut pugnet adversum te: et iret contra eum, misit nuncios ad Ezechiam dicens:
Soon after that, King Sennacherib received a report that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia was leading his army, and was coming to attack them. So before King Sennacherib left Libnah [to fight against the army from Ethiopia], he sent other messengers to King Hezekiah with a letter.
10 Haec dicite Ezechiae regi Iuda: Non te seducat Deus tuus, in quo habes fiduciam: neque dicas: Non tradetur Ierusalem in manus regis Assyriorum.
[In the letter] he wrote this to Hezekiah: “Do not allow your god on whom you are relying to deceive you by promising that [the city of] Jerusalem will not be captured by my army [MTY].
11 Tu enim ipse audisti quae fecerunt reges Assyriorum universis terris, quo modo vastaverunt eas: num ergo solus poteris liberari?
You have certainly heard what the armies of the kings of Assyria have done to all the other countries. Our armies have completely destroyed them. So, (do you think that you will escape?/do not think that your god will save you!) [RHQ]
12 Numquid liberaverunt dii Gentium singulos, quos vastaverunt patres mei, Gozan videlicet, et Haran, et Reseph, et filios Eden, qui erant in Thelassar?
Did the gods of the nations that were about to be destroyed by the armies of the previous kings of Assyria rescue them? Did those gods rescue the people in the Gozan region and in Haran and Rezeph [cities in northern Syria] and the people of Eden who had been (deported/forced to go) to Tel-Assar [city]? None of the gods of those cities were able to rescue them.
13 Ubi est rex Emath, et rex Arphad, et rex civitatis Sepharvaim, Ana, et Ava?
What happened to the kings of Hamath and Arpad and Sepharvaim and Ivvah [cities] [RHQ]? [Most of them are dead, and the other people were deported]!”
14 Itaque cum accepisset Ezechias litteras de manu nunciorum, et legisset eas, ascendit in domum Domini, et expandit eas coram Domino,
Hezekiah took the letter that the messengers gave him, and he read it. Then he went up to the temple and spread out the letter in front of Yahweh.
15 et oravit in conspectu eius, dicens: Domine Deus Israel, qui sedes super cherubim, tu es Deus solus regum omnium terrae: tu fecisti caelum et terram.
Then Hezekiah prayed, “Yahweh, the God whom to whom we Israelis belong, you are seated on your throne above the [statues of] creatures with wings, [above the Sacred Chest]. Only you are truly God. You rule all the kingdoms on this earth. You are the one who created [everything on] the earth and [in] the sky.
16 Inclina aurem tuam, et audi: aperi Domine oculos tuos, et vide: audi omnia verba Sennacherib, qui misit ut exprobraret nobis Deum viventem.
So, Yahweh, please listen to what I am saying, and look [at what is happening]. And listen to what King Sennacherib has said to insult you, the all-powerful God.
17 Vere Domine dissipaverunt reges Assyriorum Gentes, et terras omnium.
“Yahweh, it is true that [the armies of] the kings of Assyria have completely destroyed many nations, and ruined their land.
18 Et miserunt deos eorum in ignem: non enim erant dii, sed opera manuum hominum ex ligno et lapide, et perdiderunt eos.
And they have thrown the idols of those nations into fires and burned them. But [that was not difficult to do, because] they were not gods. They were only statues made of wood and stone, idols that were shaped by humans, [and that is why they were destroyed easily].
19 Nunc igitur Domine Deus noster, salvos nos fac de manu eius, ut sciant omnia regna terrae, quia tu es Dominus Deus solus.
So now, Yahweh our God, please rescue us from the power [MTY] [of the king of Assyria], in order that the people in all the kingdoms of the world will know that you, Yahweh, are the only one who is truly God.”
20 Misit autem Isaias filius Amos ad Ezechiam, dicens: Haec dicit Dominus Deus Israel: Quae deprecatus es me super Sennacherib rege Assyriorum, audivi.
Then Isaiah sent this message to Hezekiah: “This is what Yahweh, the God to whom we Israelis belong, says: 'I have heard what you prayed to me about Sennacherib, the king of Assyria.
21 Iste est sermo, quem locutus est Dominus de eo: Sprevit te, et subsannavit te virgo filia Sion: post tergum tuum caput movit, filia Ierusalem.
This is what I say to him: “The people of Jerusalem [MTY] despise you and make fun of you. They wag/shake their heads to mock you while you flee from here.
22 Cui exprobrasti, et quem blasphemasti? contra quem exaltasti vocem tuam, et elevasti in excelsum oculos tuos? contra sanctum Israel.
Who do you think that you are despising and ridiculing? Who do you think you were shouting at? Who do you think you were looking at very proudly/arrogantly? It was I, the holy God whom the Israelis worship.
23 Per manum servorum tuorum exprobrasti Domino, et dixisti: In multitudine curruum meorum ascendi excelsa montium in summitate Libani, et succidi sublimes cedros eius, et electas abietes illius. Et ingressus sum usque ad terminos eius, et saltum carmeli eius
The messengers that you sent made fun of me. You said, 'With my many chariots I have gone to the highest mountains, even to the highest mountains in Lebanon. We have cut down its tallest cedar trees and its nicest pine/cyprus trees. We have been to the most distant/remote peaks and to its dense forests.
24 ego succidi. Et bibi aquas alienas, et siccavi vestigiis pedum meorum omnes aquas clausas.
We have dug wells in other countries and drank water from them. And by marching through [MTY] the streams of Egypt, we dried them all up [HYP]!”’
25 Numquid non audisti quid ab initio fecerim? Ex diebus antiquis plasmavi illud, et nunc adduxi: eruntque in ruinam collium compugnantium civitates munitae.
[‘But I reply], “Have you never heard that long ago I determined [that those things would happen]? I planned it long ago, and now I have been causing it to happen. I planned that your army would have [the power to] capture many cities that were surrounded by high walls, and cause them to become piles of rubble.
26 Et qui sedent in eis, humiles manu, contremuerunt et confusi sunt, facti sunt velut foenum agri, et virens herba tectorum, quae arefacta est antequam veniret ad maturitatem.
The people who lived in those cities have no power, and as a result they became dismayed and discouraged. They are as frail as plants and grass in the fields, as frail as grass that grows on the roofs of houses and is scorched by the hot east wind.
27 Habitaculum tuum, et egressum tuum, et introitum tuum, et viam tuam ego praescivi, et furorem tuum contra me.
“But I know [everything about you]. I know when you are in your house and when you go outside; I also know that you are (raging/speaking very angrily) against me.
28 Insanisti in me, et superbia tua ascendit in aures meas: ponam itaque circulum in naribus tuis, et camum in labiis tuis, et reducam te in viam, per quam venisti.
So, because you have raged against me, and because I have heard [MTY] you speak very proudly/arrogantly, [it will be as though] I will put a hook in your nose and an iron (bit/piece of metal) in your mouth [in order that I can lead you where I want you to go], and I will force you to return [to your own country] on the same road on which you came here, [without conquering Jerusalem].” '
29 Tibi autem Ezechia hoc erit signum: Comede hoc anno quae repereris: in secundo autem anno, quae sponte nascuntur: porro in tertio anno seminate et metite: plantate vineas, et comedite fructum earum.
Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “This is what will happen to prove [that I am telling the truth]: This year and next year you [and your people] will be able to harvest only (wild grain/grain that grows without having been planted). But the following year, you [Israelis] will be able to plant grain and harvest it, and to plant vineyards and eat the grapes that you harvest.
30 Et quodcumque reliquum fuerit de domo Iuda, mittet radicem deorsum, et faciet fructum sursum.
The people [MTY] in Judah who remain alive will prosper and have many children; they will be like plants whose roots go deep down into the ground and which produce much [MET].
31 De Ierusalem quippe egredientur reliquiae, et quod salvetur de monte Sion: zelus Domini exercituum faciet hoc.
There will be many people in Jerusalem [DOU] who will survive, because Yahweh, the commander of the armies of angels in heaven, wants [PRS] it to happen.
32 Quam ob rem haec dicit Dominus de rege Assyriorum: Non ingredietur urbem hanc, nec mittet in eam sagittam, nec occupabit eam clypeus, nec circumdabit eam munitio.
So this is what Yahweh, says about the king of Assyria: ‘His armies will not enter this city; they will not even shoot any arrows into it! His soldiers will not march outside the city gates carrying shields, and they will not even build high mounds of dirt against [the city walls] [to enable them to attack the city].
33 Per viam, qua venit, revertetur: et civitatem hanc non ingredietur, dicit Dominus.
Their king will return to his own country on the same road on which he came here. He will not enter this city! [That will happen because] I, Yahweh have said it!
34 Protegamque urbem hanc, et salvabo eam propter me, et propter David servum meum.
I will defend this city and prevent it from being destroyed. I will do this for the sake of my own reputation and because of what I promised to King David, who served me well.'”
35 Factum est igitur in nocte illa, venit Angelus Domini, et percussit in castris Assyriorum centum octogintaquinque millia. Cumque diluculo surrexisset, vidit omnia corpora mortuorum: et recedens abiit,
That night, an angel from Yahweh went out to where the army of Assyria had put up their tents, and killed 185,000 of their soldiers! When the rest of their soldiers woke up the next morning, they saw that there were corpses everywhere!
36 et reversus est Sennacherib rex Assyriorum, et mansit in Ninive.
Then King Sennacherib left and went home to Nineveh, [the capital of Assyria].
37 Cumque adoraret in templo Nesroch deum suum, Adramelech et Sarasar filii eius percusserunt eum gladio, fugeruntque in terram Armenorum, et regnavit Asarhaddon filius eius pro eo.
One day, when he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, two of his sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, killed him with their swords. Then they escaped and went to [the] Ararat [region, northwest of Nineveh]. And another of Sennacherib's sons, Esarhaddon, became the king of Assyria.
