2 Kings 19:1–21:26
Jerusalem’s Deliverance Foretold
19 When King Hezekiah heard this, he torei his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord. 2 He sent Eliakimj the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary and the leading priests,k all wearing sackcloth,l to the prophet Isaiahm son of Amoz. 3 They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the momentn of birth and there is no strength to deliver them. 4 It may be that the Lord your God will hear all the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridiculeo the living God, and that he will rebukep him for the words the Lord your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnantq that still survives.”
5 When King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraidr of what you have heard—those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemeds me. 7 Listen! When he hears a certain report,t I will make him want to return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.u’ ”
8 When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish,v he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.w
9 Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the king of Cush,a was marching out to fight against him. So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word: 10 “Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you dependx on deceivey you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.’ 11 Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered? 12 Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my predecessors deliverz them—the gods of Gozan,a Harran,b Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath or the king of Arpad? Where are the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah?”c
14 Hezekiah received the letterd from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: “Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim,e you alonef are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 16 Give ear,g Lord, and hear;h open your eyes,i Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.
17 “It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. 18 They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not godsj but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands.k 19 Now, Lord our God, deliverl us from his hand, so that all the kingdomsm of the earth may known that you alone, Lord, are God.”
Isaiah Prophesies Sennacherib’s Fall
19:20–37pp—Isa 37:21–38
19:35–37pp—2Ch 32:20–21
20 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I have heardo your prayer concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria. 21 This is the word that the Lord has spoken againstp him:
“ ‘Virgin Daughterq Zion
Daughter Jerusalem
tosses her headt as you flee.
22 Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed?u
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes in pride?
Against the Holy Onev of Israel!
you have ridiculed the Lord.
And you have said,w
“With my many chariotsx
I have ascended the heights of the mountains,
the utmost heights of Lebanon.
I have cut downy its tallest cedars,
the choicest of its junipers.
I have reached its remotest parts,
the finest of its forests.
24 I have dug wells in foreign lands
and drunk the water there.
With the soles of my feet
I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.”
25 “ ‘Have you not heard?z
Long ago I ordained it.
In days of old I planneda it;
now I have brought it to pass,
that you have turned fortified cities
into piles of stone.b
26 Their people, drained of power,c
are dismayedd and put to shame.
They are like plants in the field,
like tender green shoots,e
like grass sprouting on the roof,
scorchedf before it grows up.
27 “ ‘But I knowg where you are
and when you come and go
and how you rage against me.
28 Because you rage against me
and because your insolence has reached my ears,
I will put my hookh in your nose
and my biti in your mouth,
and I will make you returnj
by the way you came.’
29 “This will be the signk for you, Hezekiah:
“This year you will eat what grows by itself,l
and the second year what springs from that.
But in the third year sow and reap,
plant vineyardsm and eat their fruit.
30 Once more a remnantn of the kingdom of Judah
will take rooto below and bear fruit above.
31 For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant,p
and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.q
“The zealr of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
32 “Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria:
“ ‘He will not enter this city
or shoot an arrow here.
He will not come before it with shield
or build a siege ramp against it.
33 By the way that he came he will return;s
he will not enter this city,
declares the Lord.
34 I will defendt this city and save it,
for my sake and for the sake of Davidu my servant.’ ”
35 That night the angel of the Lordv went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies!w 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew.x He returned to Ninevehy and stayed there.
37 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelekz and Sharezer killed him with the sword,a and they escaped to the land of Ararat.b And Esarhaddonc his son succeeded him as king.
20:1–11pp—2Ch 32:24–26; Isa 38:1–8
20 In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.”
2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, 3 “Remember,d Lord, how I have walkede before you faithfullyf and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4 Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: 5 “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heardg your prayer and seen your tears;h I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the Lord. 6 I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defendi this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.’ ”
7 Then Isaiah said, “Prepare a poultice of figs.” They did so and applied it to the boil,j and he recovered.
8 Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What will be the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I will go up to the temple of the Lord on the third day from now?”
9 Isaiah answered, “This is the Lord’s signk to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: Shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or shall it go back ten steps?”
10 “It is a simplel matter for the shadow to go forward ten steps,” said Hezekiah. “Rather, have it go back ten steps.”
11 Then the prophet Isaiah called on the Lord, and the Lord made the shadow go backm the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.
20:12–19pp—Isa 39:1–8
20:20–21pp—2Ch 32:32–33
12 At that time Marduk-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of Hezekiah’s illness. 13 Hezekiah received the envoys and showed them all that was in his storehouses—the silver, the gold, the spices and the fine olive oil—his armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.
14 Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked, “What did those men say, and where did they come from?”
“From a distant land,” Hezekiah replied. “They came from Babylon.”
15 The prophet asked, “What did they see in your palace?”
“They saw everything in my palace,” Hezekiah said. “There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.”
16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: 17 The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon.n Nothing will be left, says the Lord. 18 And some of your descendants,o your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”p
19 “The word of the Lord you have spoken is good,” Hezekiah replied. For he thought, “Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?”
20 As for the other events of Hezekiah’s reign, all his achievements and how he made the poolq and the tunnelr by which he brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? 21 Hezekiah rested with his ancestors. And Manasseh his son succeeded him as king.
21:1–10pp—2Ch 33:1–10
21:17–18pp—2Ch 33:18–20
21 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years. His mother’s name was Hephzibah.s 2 He did evilt in the eyes of the Lord, following the detestable practicesu of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. 3 He rebuilt the high placesv his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he also erected altars to Baalw and made an Asherah pole,x as Ahab king of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the starry hostsy and worshiped them. 4 He built altarsz in the temple of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem I will put my