2 Kings 19:1–10

Jerusalem’s Deliverance Foretold

19:1–13pp—Isa 37:1–13

19When King Hezekiah heard this, he toreⁱ his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord. ²He sent Eliakim^j the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary and the leading priests,^k all wearing sackcloth,^l to the prophet Isaiah^m son of Amoz. ³They 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. ⁴It 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 ridicule^o the living God, and that he will rebuke^p him for the words the Lord your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant^q that still survives.”

⁵When King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah, ⁶Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid^r of what you have heard—those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed^s me. ⁷Listen! 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’ ”

⁸When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish,^v he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.^w

⁹Now 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 depend^x on deceive^y you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.’