2Kgs 19
1
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 YHWH.
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 contumely; for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength
to bring forth.
4
It may be YHWH your 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 YHWH your
God has heard: wherefore lift up your 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 you say to your master, Thus says YHWH, Be not
afraid of the words that you have heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria
have blasphemed me.
7
Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he shall hear tidings, 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 is come out to fight
against you, he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying,
10
Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not your God in whom you
trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king
of Assyria.
11
Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying
them utterly: and shall you be delivered?
12
Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan,
and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children 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 YHWH, and spread it before YHWH.
15
And Hezekiah prayed before YHWH, and said, O YHWH, the God of Israel, that sit [above]
the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you
have made heaven and earth.
16
Incline your ear, O YHWH, and hear; open your eyes, O YHWH, and see; and hear the
words of Sennacherib, wherewith he has sent him to defy the living God.
17
Of a truth, YHWH, 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 YHWH our God, save you us, I beseech you, out of his hand, that all
the kingdoms of the earth may know that you YHWH art God alone.
20
Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus says YHWH, the God of Israel,
Whereas you have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard [you].
21
This is the word that YHWH has spoken concerning him: The virgin daughter of Zion
has despised you and laughed you to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her
head at you.
22
Whom have you defied and blasphemed? and against whom have you exalted your voice
and lifted up your eyes on high? [even] against the Holy One of Israel.
23
By your messengers you have defied the Lord, and have said, With the multitude of
my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of
Lebanon; and I will cut down the tall cedars thereof, and the choice fir-trees thereof;
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 will I dry up all
the rivers of Egypt.
25
Have you not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it of ancient times? now
have I brought it to pass, that it should be yours 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 your sitting down, and your going out, and your coming in, and your raging
against me.
28
Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogancy is come up into mine
ears, therefore will I put my hook in your nose, and my bridle in your lips, and I
will turn you back by the way by which you came.
29
And this shall be the sign to you: You 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 you,
and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat its fruit.
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 they that shall
escape: the zeal of YHWH shall perform this.
32
Therefore thus says YHWH 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 YHWH.
34
For I will defend this city to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David`s
sake.
35
And it came to pass that night, that the angel of YHWH went forth, and smote in the
camp of the Assyrians a hundred fourscore and 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.