14 And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. 15 Then Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying: 16 “O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You falone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 17 gIncline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hhear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. 18 Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their ilands, 19 and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were jnot gods, but the work of men’s hands—wood and stone. Therefore they destroyed them. 20 Now therefore, O Lord our God, ksave us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may lknow that You are the Lord, You alone.”

The Word of the Lord Concerning Sennacherib

21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22 this is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning him:

“The virgin, the daughter of Zion,

Has despised you, laughed you to scorn;

The daughter of Jerusalem

Has shaken her head behind your back!

23 “Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?

Against whom have you raised your voice,

And lifted up your eyes on high?

Against the Holy One of Israel.

24 By your servants you have reproached the Lord,

And said, ‘By the multitude of my chariots

I have come up to the height of the mountains,

To the limits of Lebanon;

I will cut down its tall cedars

And its choice cypress trees;

I will enter its farthest height,

To its fruitful forest.

25 I have dug and drunk water,

And with the soles of my feet I have dried up

All the brooks of 2defense.’

26 “Did you not hear mlong ago

How I made it,

From ancient times that I formed it?

Now I have brought it to pass,

That you should be

For crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins.

27 Therefore their inhabitants had little power;

They were dismayed and confounded;

They were as the grass of the field

And the green herb,

As the grass on the housetops

And grain blighted before it is grown.

28 “But I know your dwelling place,

Your going out and your coming in,

And your rage against Me.

29 Because your rage against Me and your tumult

Have come up to My ears,

Therefore nI will put My hook in your nose

And My bridle in your lips,

And I will oturn you back

By the way which you came.” ’

30 “This shall be a sign to you:

You shall eat this year such as grows of itself,

And the second year what springs from the same;

Also in the third year sow and reap,

Plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.

31 And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah

Shall again take root downward,

And bear fruit upward.

32 For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant,

And those who escape from Mount Zion.

The pzeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

33 “Therefore thus says 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 build a siege mound against it.

34 By the way that he came,

By the same shall he return;

And he shall not come into this city,’

Says the Lord.

35 ‘For I will qdefend this city, to save it

For My own sake and for My servant rDavid’s sake.’ ”

Sennacherib’s Defeat and Death

36 Then the sangel 3of the Lord went out, and 4killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses—all dead. 37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh. 38 Now it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then tEsarhaddon his son reigned in his place.