2 Kings 19

CHAPTER 19

Isaiah Tells Hezekiah Not to Be Afraid

1 aNow it happened that when King Hezekiah heard it, he btore his clothes, ccovered himself with sackcloth, and entered the house of Yahweh.

2 Then he sent Eliakim who was over the household with Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, acovered with sackcloth, to bIsaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.

3 And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, reproof, and rejection; for children have come to the point of breaking forth, but there is no strength to give birth.

4 ‘aPerhaps Yahweh your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent bto 1reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore, lift up a prayer for cthe remnant that is left.’”

5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

6 And Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says Yahweh, “Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the ayoung men of the king of Assyria bhave blasphemed Me.

7 “Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that ahe will hear a report and return to his own land. And bI will make him fall by the sword in his own land.” ’ ”

Sennacherib Deceives Hezekiah

8 Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against aLibnah, for he had heard that 1the king had set out from bLachish.

9 Then he heard them say concerning Tirhakah king of 1Ethiopia, “Behold, he has come out to fight against you.” So he sent messengers again to Hezekiah saying,

10 “Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of 1Judah, ‘Do not alet your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “bJerusalem will 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 the lands, devoting them to destruction. So will you be delivered?

12 ‘aDid the gods of 1those nations which my fathers brought to ruin deliver them, even bGozan and cHaran and Rezeph and dthe sons of Eden who were in Telassar?

13 ‘aWhere is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah?’”

Hezekiah’s Prayer

14 Then aHezekiah took the 1letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of Yahweh and 2spread it out before Yahweh.

15 And Hezekiah prayed before Yahweh and said, “O Yahweh, the God of Israel, awho is 1enthroned above the cherubim, bYou are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.

16 “aIncline Your ear, O Yahweh, and hear; bopen Your eyes, O Yahweh, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, who sent them cto 1reproach the living God.

17 “Truly, O Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands

18 and have put their gods into the fire, afor they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them.

19 “But now, O Yahweh our God, I pray, save us from his hand athat all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O bYahweh, are God.”

Isaiah Speaks of Sennacherib’s Fall

20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah saying, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, aI have heard you.’

21 “This is the word that Yahweh has spoken against him:

‘She has despised you and mocked you,

aThe virgin daughter of Zion;

She bhas shaken her head behind you,

The daughter of Jerusalem!

22 ‘Whom have you 1areproached and bblasphemed?

And against whom have you heightened your voice,

And 2haughtily lifted up your eyes?

Against the cHoly One of Israel!

23 ‘aThrough your messengers you have 1reproached the Lord,

And you have said, “With my many chariots

I came up to the heights of the mountains,

To the remotest parts of Lebanon;

And I 2cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses.

And I 3entered its farthest lodging place, its bthickest forest.

24 “I dug wells and drank foreign waters,

And with the sole of my feet I 1adried up

All the rivers of 2Egypt.”

25 ‘aHave you not heard?

Long ago I did it;

From days of old I formed it.

bNow I have brought it to pass,

That you should devastate fortified cities into ruinous heaps.

26 ‘So their inhabitants were short of power,

They were dismayed and put to shame;

They were aas the plant of the field and as the green herb,

As grass on the rooftops is scorched before it rises.

27 ‘But aI 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 1presumptuousness has come up to My ears,

Therefore I awill put My hook in your nose,

And My bridle in your lips,

And bI will turn you back by the way which you came.

29 ‘Then this shall be athe sign for you: 1you will eat this year what grows of its own accord, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.

30 ‘aAnd the surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward.

31 ‘For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant, and aout of Mount Zion 1survivors. bThe zeal of 2Yahweh will do this.

32 ‘Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria, “aHe will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield or throw up a siege ramp against it.

33 “aBy the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he shall not come to this city,” ’ declares Yahweh.

34 ‘aIndeed I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and bfor My servant David’s sake.’”

35 aNow it happened that night, that the angel of Yahweh went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And the 1men arose early in the morning, and behold, all of 2them were dead bodies.

36 So aSennacherib king of Assyria set out and went away and returned home and lived at bNineveh.

37 Now it happened that as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, 1aAdrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into bthe land of Ararat. And cEsarhaddon his son became king in his place.